The  University  of  Kansas. 


Commencement  Addresses. 


McCook,   Snow,   Gleed. 


Digitized  by  the  Internet  Archive 
in  2013 


http://archive.org/details/universityofkansOOuniv 


THE   UNIVERSITY   OF   KANSAS. 


ADDRESSES 


CONCEBNING 


The  Chancellorship, 
The  University, 
Higher  Education 


COMMENCEMENT:    JUNE,  1890. 

LAWRENCE,    KANSAS. 


TOPEKA: 

KANSAS   PUBLISHING  HOUSE:     C.C.BAKER,  STATE  PRINTER. 
1890. 


PREFACE. 


The  Regents  of  the  Kansas  State  University  beg  leave  to 
present  in  this  form  three  Commencement  addresses  which 
they  believe  will  be  particularly  interesting  and  instructive 
at  this  time  to  the  people  of  Kansas,  and  to  all  readers  out- 
side of  Kansas  who  are-  concerned  in  the  work  which  the 
State  is  doing  through  her  chief  educational  institution  at 
Lawrence.  The  inauguration  of  Chancellor  Snow  on  Wed- 
nesday, June  11th,  1890,  occasioned  his  address  and  that 
introducing  him  by  Charles  S.  Gleed  on  behalf  of  the  Re- 
gents. The  address  by  Col.  John  J.  McCook,  of  New  York 
City,  was  made  as  the  annual  University  oration,  in  Uni- 
versity Hall,  June  10th,  1890.  The  addresses  by  Chancel- 
lor Snow  and  Regent  Gleed  relate  directly  to  the  University 
and  its  newly-chosen  chief  executive,  while  the  address  by 
Col.  McCook  is  recommended  to  all  readers  as  a  powerful 
appeal  for  higher  education,  made  by  one  of  the  foremost  busi- 
ness and  professional  men  in  the  United  States.  The  Regents 
respectfully  urge  for  these  three  addresses  the  most  careful 
attention  of  every  thoughtful  Kansan. 


941203 


Introductory  Address  for  the  Board 
of  Regents. 


CHARLES   S.  GLEED. 


Mere  ceremony  is  not  tolerated  as  it  once  was. 
Formality  is  an  outcast.  Time  has  grown  scarce, 
and  those  who  wait  begrudge  the  moments  of 
their  detention.  Pleadings  at  law  are  directed  to 
be  "clear  and  concise,"  and  inaugurations  and 
graduations,  if  ostentatious  and  vain-glorious,  are 
derided.  A  parade  without  good  purpose  is 
child's  play  or  worse. 

The  present  ceremony  has  a  purpose.  The 
Regents  of  the  University  have  chosen  Francis 
Huntington  Snow  as  chief  executive  of  the  insti- 
tution, to  succeed  ex- Chancellor  Lippincott.  The 
choice  has  been  made,  the  tender  has  been  ac- 
cepted. With  nothing  further  said  or  done  the 
new  chief  could  go  on  with  his  new  work.  But 
the  Regents,  mindful  that  this  is  an  institution 
of  the  people,  for  the  people  and  by  the  people, 
have  determined  to  make  known,  in  this  simple 
way,  something  of  their  convictions  as  to  the  in- 
stitution and  its  chief  executive,  and  to  give  that 

(5) 


6 

chief  executive  an  opportunity,  not  particularly 
to  unroll  Lis  own  personal  or  official  program, 
but  rather  to  outline  so  much  of  his  theory  and 
knowledge  of  university  work,  here  and  else- 
where, as  will  best  secure  him  the  needed  co- 
operation of  all  the  people  of  Kansas. 

And  before  all  else  should  be  spoken  souk- 
words  of  commendation. 

To  ex- Chancellor  Lippincott  is  due  the  grati- 
tude of  Kansas  for  six  years  of  the  most  devoted 
attention  to  the  interests  of  the  University.  His 
patience,  his  impersonal  zeal,  his  genial  courtesy, 
his  unflagging  industry,  combined  to  make  his 
administration  one  of  peace  and  prosperity. 
Under  him  new  men  of  rare  merit  were  added 
to  the  faculty,  and  new  buildings  and  large  gains 
in  other  ways  were  made.  In  his  varied  experi- 
ence have  been  solved  many  problems  for  those 
who  are  to  come  after  him,  and  while  the  his- 
tory of  the  University  of  Kansas  is  read  his 
name  will  suggest  faithfulness  and  kindness  and 
success. 

Again,  deep  gratitude  is  due  to  Mr.  Spangler, 
whose  vigilance  and  skill  have  so  thoroughly 
bridged  the  administrative  chasm  between  Chan- 
cellor Lippincott  and  his  successor.  No  other 
man  outside  the  faculty  could  have  done  so  well. 
All  the  trying  features  of  the  situation  Avere  met 
with  courage  and  dignity,  and  no  mistakes  were 
made.     For  this  faithful  service  Mr.  Spangler  has 


the  thanks  of  his  associates  of  the  Board  of  Re- 
gents, and,  I  am  sure,  of  all  concerned. 

Again,  to  Professor  James  H.  Canfield  are  due 
compliments  and  congratulations  of  an  unusual 
sort.  The  embarrassments  of  his  position  were 
many,  hut  they  were  nobly  met.  He  neither  lost 
his  head  at  the  flood  of  kind  things  said  of  him, 
nor  his  temper  at  the  things  not  so  kind.  For 
his  serenity,  his  dignity,  and  his  many  direct 
helps  —  such  as  his  early  nomination  and  steady 
support  of  the  man  finally  chosen — the  members 
of  the  Board  of  Regents  and  all  friends  of  the 
University  will  never  cease  to  be  grateful. 

And  lastly,  to  the  people  of  Kansas  who  waited 
patiently,  considerately,  kindly  for  the  Board  to 
choose  a  Chancellor,  every  member  of  it  is  under 
the  greatest  obligation. 

When  Chancellor  Lippincott  resigned,  every 
member  of  the  Board  felt  almost  jealously  fear- 
ful that  an  error  would  be  made  in  the  choice  of 
his  successor.  From  the  first  every  possible  ob- 
jection to  every  possible  man  was  kept  constantly 
in  view.  So  dreaded  were  all  these  objections 
that  no  two  members  were  often  found  of  the 
same  opinion.  Objections  that  to  one  seemed 
great  to  another  seemed  small.  But  at  no  time 
was  there  a  disposition  to  select  by  other  than  a 
unanimous  vote,  and  never  was  there  the  slightest 
danger  of  an  improper  selection  being  made.     No 


8 

man  was  ever  seriously  considered  who  would  not 
have  given  the  place  as  much  as  the  place  could 
give  him.  In  this  the  Regents  were  a  unit  fron] 
the  first.  They  may  have  been  slow,  never  slov- 
enly. They  may  have  been  timid,  never  trifling. 
They  may  have  been  visionary,  never  viciou-. 
They  regretted  that  the  advocates  of  every 
worthy  candidate  could  not  be  gratified.  They 
regretted  every  unhappy  word  or  deed,  and  they 
sympathized  deeply  with  every  embarrassment 
which  came  to  any  friend  of  the  University,  near 
or  remote.  So  painfully  keen  were  these  feelings 
that  a  straight  course  could  scarcely  have  been 
kept  but  for  the  closest  adherence  to  the  ideas 
that  the  University,  as  a  whole,  is  more  and  of 
more  worth  than  any  individual  in  or  near  it; 
that  nothing  should  be  sacrificed,  either  in  the 
personal  and  professional  worth  of  the  man 
chosen  or  in  the  general  harmony,  inside  and 
out,  which  is  necessary  for  the  health  and  use- 
fulness of  the  institution;  that  mere  precedent,  or 
policy,  or  faction,  or  personality,  or  temporary 
consideration  of  any  sort  should  not  govern. 
Thus  adhering,  thus  persevering,  they  came  at 
last  into  the  good  graces  of  Francis  Huntington 
Snow. 

^J[In  the  battered  old  book  containing  the  first 
University  records  may  be  seen  this  entry,  of  date 
July  19th,  1866:    "Prof.  F.  H.  Snow  was   nomi- 


Dated  for  the  chair  of  mathematics  and  the  nat- 
ural sciences,  and  receiving  a  majority  of  the  votes 
was  declared  elected." 

On  the  1st  day  of  September,  1866,  Prof.  Snow 
began  his  work  for  Kansas  —  a  work  which  he 
has  to  this  hour  pursued  with  perpetual  motion 
and  no  back  tracks.  He  has  since  received  from 
Kansas  neither  a  smaller  annual  salary  than  his 
first  few  hundred  dollars,  nor  a  much  larger 
one.  For  this  magnificent  pecuniary  reward  he 
has  given  Kansas  a  quarter  of  a  century  of  per- 
sonal service,  has  secured  for  her  a  natural  his- 
tory collection  easily  marketable  for,  say,  four 
times  what  the  State  has  ever  paid  him  as 
salary,  with  interest  counted,  and  has,  besides, 
brought  to  Kansas  from  far-away  Massachusetts, 
through  his  generous  friend,  William  B.  Spooner, 
a  magnificent  donation  of  upwards  of  a  quarter 
of  a  million  dollars.  Something  might  also  be 
said  of  his  own  personal  sacrifices,  financially,  for 
the  University's  benefit;  but  true  charity  neither 
vaunteth  itself  nor  likes  to  be  vaunted. 

In  the  outset,  he  was  required  to  know  every- 
thing about  all  branches  of  science,  to  get  his  own 
books,  and  to  provide  the  museums  and  apparatus 
for  his  scientific  work;  and  the  way  he  did  this 
challenges  the  records  of  Caesar,  Napoleon,  and 
Grant.  Had  the  signal- service  bureau  of  Noah's 
time  announced  the  deluge,  Noah  could  not  have 
been  more   popular  in  the  animal   kingdom   than 


10 

Chancellor  Snow  has  been.  Every  form  of  ani- 
mate and  inanimate  thing  has  got  into  his  ark 
with  marvelous  haste.  He  lias  been  the  most 
magnetic  of  men.  The  Leviathan  has  come  up  at 
the  end  of  his  line  as  docile  as  a  cow.  Into  his 
presence  the  ambulatory  measure- worm  has  kinked 
itself  most  willingly.  He  has  conjured  up  snakes 
innumerable  without  the  aid  of  prohibited  liquors, 
and  he  has  coaxed  all  the  birds  of  the  air  to  get 
their  tails  salted  in  his  shop.  Even  the  thought- 
less and  unreasoning  petrifactions  of  ages  long 
dead  have  aroused  themselves  to  the  demands  of 
fashion,  and  have  joined  the  procession  towards 
Snow  Hall. 

And  Snow  Hall !  Few  people  know  how  it 
came  into  being.  Only  those  know  who  stood  by 
the  man  for  whom  it  was  named  among  the  State's 
law-makers,  and  saw  him  win  the  votes  of  men 
who  knew  nothing  of  his  sciences  or  his  learn- 
ings, but  who  did  know  that  they  were  elected 
on  platforms  calling  for  the  most  rigid  economy. 
One  after  another  those  bronzed  and  work-worn 
law -makers  saw  things  through  the  perfect  lenses 
of  the  little  scholar's  eyes  and  cast  their  ballots 
right ;  and  at  least  one  hand  feels  to  this  day  the 
vise -like  grip  of  joy  and  triumph  which  the  lit- 
tle scholar  gave  it  when  the  last  necessary  vote 
had  been  recorded.  And — mark  this  —  the  joy 
behind  his  grip  was  not  that  Snow  had  won,  but 
that  Kansas  for  herself  had  done  the  right  thing. 


11 

The  victory  which  he  won  from  his  fellow-citi- 
zens of  the  Legislature  was  not  a  victory  of  in- 
trigue, or  conspiracy,  or  questionable  acuteness  of 

any  sort,  but  rather  one  of  honest  archery  with 
the  bow  of  truth  and  a  quiver  full  of  facts. 
Such  are  all  his  victories. 

Honest  work  has  characterized  every  step  of  his 
progress.  Year  in  and  year  out  he  has  remitted 
nothing.  His  vacations  have  brought  only  change 
of  work,  and  his  recreations  have  been  times  of 
learning.  And  yet  he  is  in  no  sense  a  man  made 
dull  by  "all  work  and  no  play."  Not  one  who 
has  ever  heard  him  sing  the  songs  of  his  college 
days,  not  one  who  has  ever  seen  him  under  the 
spell  of  fine  music,  not  one  who  has  ever  ex- 
changed smiles  with  him  over  things  bright  and 
situations  amusing,  will  ever  accuse  him  of  hav- 
ing: worked  his  mind  to  dullness. 

Allusion  has  been  made  to  Chancellor  Snow  as 
a  "little  scholar."  This  means  that  he  is  small 
of  stature.  For  some  purposes  this  is  a  disad- 
vantage. Large  men  challenge  attention  and  get 
on  in  the  world  with  fewer  brains  than  small 
men.  Said  ex -Justice  Kingman  of  a  portly  can- 
didate for  office:  "He  is  physically  the  most  in- 
tellectual man  in  Kansas."  Chancellor  Snow  is 
not  thus  fortunate,  and  yet  he  is  a  fine  example 
of  perhaps  the  most  effective  sort  of  physical 
strength.  Giants  are  too  often  of  soft  metal 
which    soon    fails,  or    else    are    prodigal    of    their 


12 

strength  and  by  mere  wantonness  exhaust  it.  The 
nerve-strong  men  who  in  the  beginning  are  put 
under  bonds  to  conserve  what  strength  they  have 
are  the  men  who  most  often  stay  through  the 
race  and  win  it.  This  country  has  produced  a 
wonderful  lot  of  men  strong  in  this  way — Jay 
Gould,  Samuel  J.  Tilden,  Stephen  A.  Douglas, 
Thaddeus  Stevens,  and  thousands  of  others.  Thus 
Chancellor  Snow,  though  physically  slight,  is 
nervously  a  giant.  He  is  never  ill,  and  never 
seems  tired.  His  application  to  study  for  a  quar- 
ter of  a  century  has  been  remarkable,  and  noth- 
ing but  genuine  physical  strength  could  ever 
have  carried  him  through. 

His  step  is  elastic,  quick,  and  firm.  His  dark- 
blue  eyes,  clear  and  calm,  never  nutter  and  never 
dodge,  always  see  everything  in  sight,  and  yet 
always  show  a  fullness  of  merriment,  gentleness, 
and  love.  His  features  are  regular  and  strong. 
His  upper  lip  means  business,  and  his  mouth, 
though  kindly,  is  wholly  resolute.  There  is  not 
a  weak  or  slovenly  line  in  his  countenance.  His 
hand  is  quick  and  warm,  and  his  handwriting, 
though  it  does  not  suggest  John  Hancock^  reck- 
less extravagance  of  ink  and  space,  is  graceful,  gen- 
erous and  full  of  character.  His  voice  is  clear 
and  fine,  and  peculiarly  his  own.  His  whole 
presence  is  cheerful.  Sweetness  and  light  are 
with  him  always. 

In  the  earliest  pages  of   Ben-Hur  are  described 


13 

the  three  men  who  met  in  the  desert.  This  de- 
scription of  the  Greek  is  a  description  of  Chan- 
cellor Snow:  "The  last  comer  was  unlike  his 
friend;  his  frame  was  slighter;  his  complexion 
white;  a  mass  of  waving  light  hair  was  a  per- 
fect crown  for  his  small  but  beautiful  head;  the 
warmth  of  his  dark -blue  eyes  certified  a  delicate 
mind,  and  a  cordial,  brave  nature.  .  .  .  Fifty 
years  had  spent  themselves  upon  him  with  no  other 
effect  apparently  than  to  tinge  his  demeanor  with 
gravity  and  temper  his  words  with  forethought. 
The  physical  organization  and  the  brightness  of 
soul  were  untouched.  No  need  to  tell  the  student 
from  what  kindred  he  was  sprung;  if  he  came  not 
himself  from  the  groves  of  Athene,  his  ancestors 
did." 

And  what  this  Greek  says  of  himself  is  surely 
what  Francis  Huntington  Snow  would  say  of 
himself  had  he  to  speak:  "The  most  that  I  am 
sure  of  is,  that  I  am  doing  a  Master's  will,  and 
that  the  service  is  a  constant  ecstacy.  When  I 
think  of  the  purpose  I  am  sent  to  fulfill,  there  is 
in  me  joy  so  inexpressible  that  I  know  the  will 
is  God's." 

Chancellor  Snow  stands  for  the  highest  type  of 
Christianity.  Nurtured  from  childhood  in  the 
orthodox  church  of  New  England  and  a  student 
in  her  highest  school  of  theology,  he  retains  to- 
day the  strength  and  beauty  of  that  church, 
minus  its  localisms   and   personalities.     The  prin- 


14 

ciples  of  justice  applied  in  Kansas  courts  to-day, 
under  a  simple  code,  are  the  same  as  those  ap- 
plied a  hundred  years  ago  under  the  insuperable 
perplexities  of  the  English  practice.  Thus  the 
evolution  of  Chancellor  Snow's  mind  has  for  him 
banished  whence  they  came  all  technicalities  and 
non-essentials,  and  brought  into  whitest  light  that 
which  is  unimpeachably  true.  Starr  King  says  : 
u  Blind  conservatives  never  stop  to  make  accurate 
classifications  of  their  opponents.  They  make  no 
account  of  the  various  moods  and  spirit  in  which 
dissent  is  made  and  the  frequent  affirmations  that 
accompany  denials."  No  such  blind  conservative 
is  Chancellor  Snow,  for  he  remembers  that  uwho- 
soever  shall  humble  himself  as  this  little  child, 
the  same  is  greatest  in  the  Kingdom  of  Heaven.1' 
He  knows  that  righteousness  exalteth  a  nation, 
and  that  nothing  else  does.  He  knows  that 
nothing  can  take  the  place  of  an  absolute  accept- 
ance of  the  idea  of  God  and  a  future  life  which 
the  wise  men  of  all  ages  have  approved,  and 
which  guides  and  guards  the  soul  through  all 
dangers,  keeps  it  pure  and  brings  it  finally  to 
that  peace  which  passeth  all  understanding. 

Intellectually,  Chancellor  Snow's  position  is 
well  defined.  A  chip  of  the  old  New  England 
block,  he  is  also  in  line  with  that  new  Old  Eng- 
land, which  is  to-day  the  intellectual  monarch  of 
the  world.  His  place  is  among  such  men  as 
Agassiz,     Emerson,     Thoreau,     Huxley,    Spencer, 


15 

Tvndal,  and  Darwin.  His  scholarship  is  genu- 
inely broad.  An  ardent  student  of  the  classic 
literatures,  an  equally  ardent  student  in  the  realm 
of  theology,  he  has  done  in  science  things  for 
which  the  world  knows  him.  Such  a  man  with 
such  a  record  cannot  fail  to  have  a  vision  as 
broad  as  the  broadest  Kansan  could  wish. 

His  mind  is  in  every  way  poised  and  self- 
mastered.  Emerson  says  :  "  Health  is  the  condi- 
tion of  wisdom,  and  the  sign  is  cheerfulness  —  an 
open  and  noble  temper.''1  And  Emerson  quotes 
in  connection  with  this  remark  : 

"Oft  have  I  heard,  and  deemed  the  witness  true, 
Who  man  delights  in,  God  delights  in,  too." 

He  has  also  what  Emerson  says  is  a  sure  trait 
of  true  success :  "  The  good  mind  chooses  what 
is  positive,  what  is  advancing — embraces  the  af- 
firmative." Negative  positions  to  Chancellor  Snow 
are  hateful. 

The  quality  of  his  mind  is  such  that  it  never 
seems  to  be  clogged  or  muddy.  His  great  learn- 
ing has  not  left  him  inert  or  other  than  alert 
and  quick.  It  has  not  spoiled  his  balance  or  his 
equanimity.  He  is  never  found  in  the  paroxysms 
of  intellectual  gastralgia,  or  in  that  stuffed  and 
undigesting  condition  which  curdles  the  temper 
and  warps  the  judgment. 

It  is  from  this  knowledge  of  Chancellor  Snow's 
mind  that  his  methods  are  foreseen.  He  has  been 
called,  with  some  degree  of   depreciation,  "a  spe- 


16 

cialist,"  He  is  ;  but  one  specialty  differeth  from 
another  in  magnitude,  and  it  seems  to  those  who 
know  him  best  that  over  and  above  his  special- 
ties in  science,  literature  or  the  arts  should  be 
set  his  specialty  of  doing  well  whatever  he  under- 
takes. His  passion  for  attending  to  his  own  busi- 
ness is  his  master  and  renders  him  invincible. 
Now  that  the  whole  University  is  his  business,  it 
will  be  his  specialty.  He  has  burned  the  bridges 
behind  him,  and  Snow  Hall  will  not  hereafter  in 
any  respect  limit  his  affections. 

He  will  not  be  so  demonstrative  as  the  burn- 
ing and  brilliant  John  Fraser,  ex- Chancellor  of 
blessed  memory,  but  his  enthusiasm  will  be  none 
the  less  real;  and  he  will  follow  the  wholesome 
example  of  ex- Chancellor  Marvin,  whose  vigilance 
in  the  stewardship  of  the  State's  money  and 
property  was  once  exemplified  so  perfectly  in  his 
stoppage  of  the  work  on  a  staircase  within  one 
tread  of  the  top  because  the  appropriation  was 
exhausted. 

He  will  be  able  to  say  no  without  its  being 
harsh,  and  also  without  its  being  sugar-coated  so 
as  to  mean  yes.  Most  executive  heads  of  educa- 
tional institutions  are  so  lax  about  this  saying  of 
no  that  they  soon  get  the  reputation  of  being 
liars.  An  educational  corps  is  not  organized  on 
the  military  basis  where  nothing  is  assumed  not 
specifically  granted,  but  rather  on  an  amicable 
basis  where  no  man  cultivates  the  methods  or  the 


17 

manners  of  a  master.  But  none  the  less,  educa- 
tional machinery  lias  to  run  and  to  that  end  de- 
cisions must  be  made,  and  they  should  be  made 
as  clearly  as  in  military  or  railway  work.  Chan- 
cellor Snow  will  say  no  when  he  means  no,  and 
however  kind  he  may  be  in  all  he  does,  he  will 
never  be  called  a  dissembler,  a  fumbler,  or  a 
liar. 

This  leads  to  the  point  that  one  of  the  chief 
characteristics  of  Chancellor  Snow  is  his  courage. 
His  courage  is  not  of  the  sort  that  requires  to 
be  labeled.  He  carries  no  flags  and  blows  no 
trumpets  affirmative  of  his  courage,  and  the  only 
way  he  does  affirm  it  is  by  never  showing  con- 
sciousness of  fear.  He  is  never  a  prophet  of  evil. 
In  all  the  hard  years  of  our  first  quarter -century, 
years  when  hope  was  often  scarcer  even  than  cash, 
he  was  never  heard  to  wail  or  whimper.  When 
the  State  has  been  crippled  and  his  own  fortunes 
have  crumbled  about  him,  no  man  ever  heard  him 
speak  discouragingly  of  the  State  or  its  institu- 
tions. As  soon  would  a  loving  mother  foretell 
evil  of  her  children!  And,  speaking  of  courage, 
he  knows  that  jealousy  is  a  sign  of  weakness, 
self -distrust,  and  cowardice,  and  that  it  is  irra- 
tional, even  to  insanity. 

He  knows  that  honesty  is  the  best  policy  — 
that  fraud  is  always  a  treacherous  servant  whose 
aid  means  ruin.  He  knows  that  pretense  breeds 
vermin  to  disintegrate  and  destroy.     He  will   tol- 


18 

erate  no  shams.  He  knows  that  the  people  of 
Kansas  must  never  be  deceived  as  to  their  chief 
school.  He  knows  that  its  exact  status  should 
be  confessed  and  only  its  absolute  position, 
achievements  and  merits  be  claimed. 

He  has  the  characteristics  of  the  true  general, 
who  does  not  fix  his  optics  on  the  trifles  about 
him  while  the  main  issues  of  the  battle  are  being 
neglected.  He  knows  that  no  general  is  worthy 
the  name  who  does  not  perfect  his  plan  logically, 
choose  his  subordinates  wisely,  trust  them  largely, 
watch  them  closely  that  they  do  not  trespass  on 
one  another,  demand  results  or  resignations,  and 
keep  his  battle -front  strong  at  all  points.  He 
knows  that  a  general  has  no  time  to  be  a  police- 
man, or  an  amateur  detective  with  a  codak  in 
one  hand  and  a  dark  lantern  in  the  other.  He 
knows  that  a  general,  never  being  able  to  do  all 
that  might  be  done,  must  choose  for  his  first 
attention  the    things    of  chief  importance. 

He  will  have  patience  with  the  juvenile  haste 
which  demands  perfection  without  evolution,  and 
with  the  idealist  who  grandly  waives  away  the 
difficulties  of  which  time  is  one  of  the  indispen- 
sable solvents.  But  he  will  not  have  patience 
with  cases  of  intellectual  lumbago — those  people 
who  squeeze  their  way  into  educational  institu- 
tions that  they  may  grow  fat  on  inactivity  and 
nod  away  their  lives  in  the  sunshine  of  collegiate 
respectability. 


19 

It  is  true  that  Chancellor  Snow,  as  Chancellor, 
is  an  experiment.  He  has  the  task  before  him 
of  proving  our  opinion  good.  That  he  will  do 
it  we  may  have  no  fear;  but  we  dare  not  on 
that  account  withhold  every  help  that  can  be  de- 
vised. The  desire  of  his  heart  must  be  ours. 
As  a  unit  we  must  push  on  towards  the  time 
when  love  of  learning  is  truly  dominant  in  Kan- 
sas, when  our  standing  among  the  people  of  the 
earth  will  not  depend  on  our  bushels  or  our 
dollars,  when  we  shall  have  filled  our  annals  with 
those  achievements  of  the  mind  which  the  world1  s 
record  shows  us  have  glorified  the  bleakest,  rock- 
iest and  most  stingy  acres  under  the  sun. 


Inaugural  Address,  Responding  to 
the  Board  of  Regents. 


FRANCIS   HUNTINGTON   SNOW,   Ph.D.,  LL.  D. 


Before  proceeding  to  the  more  formal  presen- 
tation of  an  inaugural  address,  I  desire  to  make 
a  brief  response  to  the  generous  words  of  the 
preceding  speaker.  The  support  which  has 
been  so  heartily  accorded  in  advance  to  the  new 
management  of  University  affairs,  has  made  a 
profound  impression  upon  my  mind  and  heart, 
and  has  inspired  me  with  an  enthusiastic  expec- 
tation that  the  future  of  this  institution  will 
justify  that  action  of  the  Board  of  Regents  which 
has  rendered  necessary  the  proceedings  of  this 
day.  Sustained  by  a  united  Board  of  Regents, 
a  harmonious  Faculty,  an  enthusiastic  body  of 
students  and  alumni,  a  sympathetic  public  press, 
and  above  all  by  the  good  -  will  of  the  people  of 
the  great  State  of  Kansas,  whose  institution  we 
are,  the  new  administration  could  hardly  have 
entered  upon  its  arduous  duties  under  more  fa- 
vorable auspices.  That  the  present  era  of  good 
feeling   may  be   indefinitely  prolonged,  is    a    con- 

(21) 


22 

summation  devoutly  to  be  wished.  Differences 
of  opinion  will  undoubtedly  arise  in  shaping  the 
policy  of  the  institution,  but  no  such  differences 
can  be  allowed  to  interfere  with  the  continuance 
of  the  enthusiasm  for  University  education  which 
must  always  find  its  highest  manifestation  when 
attention  is  directed  to  the  State  school  upon 
Mount  Oread. 

In  what  I  have  to  say  to-day,  I  shall  lead 
you  to  a  consideration  of  what  the  University  of 
Kansas  has  been,  now  is,  and  is  to  be.  Of  the 
character  of  the  first  two  of  these  forms  of  exist- 
ence, we  may  speak  with  some  degree  of  cer- 
tainty, as  our  knowledge  on  these  points  is  based 
upon  actual  occurrences  ;  of  the  third,  or  future 
form  of  existence,  we  may  rest  assured  of  the  fact, 
but  must  depend  for  its  character  upon  our  own 
ideal  of  what  the  Kansas  University  ought  to  be, 
and  of  the  nearness  of  approach  to  that  ideal 
which  we  may  think  the  State  of  Kansas  is  likely 
to  accomplish.  In  regard  to  the  }3ast  character  of 
the  University,  my  personal  connection  with  it 
since  its  establishment  in  1866  will  enable  me  to 
speak  with  the  assurance  of  actual  contact  with 
the  original  sources  of  information.  When  Pro- 
fessors Robinson,  Rice  and  myself  met  each  other 
for  the  first  time  to  plan  for  the  opening  of  the 
institution,  we  found  not  a  single  genuine  High 
School  in  existence  in  the  entire  State  of  Kansas. 
It   therefore   became  necessary  to  begin   the  Uni- 


23 

versity  as  a  High  School, —  just  what  my  distin- 
guished patriotic  friend  and  adviser,  Mr.  Amos 
A.  Lawrence,  .had  told  me  it  would  be,  before  I 
left  the  State  of  Massachusetts.  And  we  contin- 
ued to  be  a  o;ood  Hig;h  School  for  a  number  of 
years,  so  that  the  name  sometimes  bestowed  upon 
us  by  our  legislative  opponents  in  those  early 
days,  and  intended  as  an  opprobrious  epithet  — 
"The  Lawrence  High  School" — was  in  reality  a 
true  designation  of  our  character,  and  not  at  all 
to  our  disparagement.  But  in  seven  years'  time 
the  four  collegiate  classes  were  all  represented  in 
our  roster  of  students,  and  in  1873  we  held 
our  first  Commencement  Exercises.  In  plans  and 
aspirations,  however,  we  were  a  University  from 
the  1st  of  September,  1866. 

In  founding  a  LTni versity  on  virgin  educational 
soil,  Ave  discovered  and  improved  some  rare  op- 
portunities for  avoiding  mistakes  which  had  been 
woven  into  the  very  texture  of  the  most  eminent 
eastern  colleges.  We  had  it  in  our  power  so  to 
determine  the  character  of  the  student  body  and 
the  scope  of  our  curriculum  that  the  institution 
should  start  into  life  with  its  entire  system  per- 
meated with  the  fresh  air  of  the  last  half  of  the 
nineteenth  century,  while  the  New  England  col- 
leges were  still  struggling  against  a  considerable 
amount  of  the  asphyxiating  atmosphere  of  the 
middle  ages.  At  a  time  when  even  in  the  West 
co-education  in  institutions  of  collegiate  rank  was 


24 

considered  to  be  a  dangerous  experiment,  the 
Legislature  of  Kansas  decided  that  in  her  Uni- 
versity the  young  women  should  have  the  same 
advantages  as  the  young  men;  and  the  Univer- 
sity faculty  have  never  introduced,  nor  even  dis- 
cussed the  introduction,  of  a  modified  curriculum 
for  the  so-called  weaker  sex.  As  convincing  evi- 
dence that  this  experiment  has  become  a  pro- 
nounced success,  and  has  not  interfered  with  the 
natural  employments  of  women,  I  will  refer  to 
Mr.  Wilson  Sterling's  Alumni  Catalogue,  from 
which  it  appears  that  an  astonishingly 
large  proportion  of  our  women  graduates 
are  engaged  in  domestic  duties,  and  at  the  same 
time  are  making  themselves  known  in  the  domain 
of  literature,  science,  and  the  arts.  The  trustees 
of  Harvard,  Yale,  Dartmouth,  Princeton,  Will- 
iams, and  many  other  high-grade  Eastern  colleges 
still  regard  the  simple  agitation  of  the  subject  of 
co-education  as  a  bomb -shell  of  sufficient  size  and 
force  to  threaten  the  disruption  of  the  educational 
body-politic.  But  this  great  question  of  woman's 
equal  educational  privileges  was  settled  once  for 
all  a  quarter  of  a  century  ago  at  the  Kansas  Uni- 
versity. 

Again,  in  framing  the  courses  of  study  for  the 
University  of  Kansas,  the  first  faculty  had  an  ir- 
resistible opportunity  of  putting  modern  science 
into  natural  relations  with  the  ancient  classics, 
the    mathematics,   and    the   wide    expanse   of   his- 


!iO 


torical,  literary,  and  philosophical  studies.  In  the 
year  of  our  beginnings,  the  best  eastern  colleges 
postponed  the  most  elementary  consideration  of 
the  physical  and  biological  sciences  to  the  Junior 
and  Senior  years,  and  then  allowed  an  insignifi- 
cant amount  of  time  for  a  very  unsatisfactory 
presentation  of  these  rudiments.  The  faculty  of 
this  University  placed  the  most  distinctively  ob- 
servational of  the  sciences,  as  botany,  zoology, 
physics  and  chemistry,  partly  in  the  Preparatory 
Department  and  partly  in  the  Freshman  and 
Sophomore  years,  in  correspondence  with  that 
stage  in  the  mental  development  when  the  per- 
ceptive faculty  is  naturally  most  active,  and 
demands  systematic  exercise  upon  appropriate 
objects.  In  this  way  the  natural  trend  of  the 
individual  mind  was  often  clearly  indicated  with- 
out loss  to  the  general  culture  of  the  student. 
In  the  Junior  and  Senior  years  opportunities 
were  afforded  for  a  more  thorough  training  of 
the  observational  powers,  with  the  result  that 
even  in  the  first  half  of  our  two  dozen  years  of 
life,  a  very  creditable  proportion  of  enthusiastic 
and  accurate  scientific  workers  were  launched 
upon  successful  careers  as  original  investigators. 
In  proof  of  this  assertion,  reference  is  again  made 
to  our  Alumni"  Catalogue,  which  indicates  that 
members  of  some  of  our  earliest  classes  have 
achieved  a  national  reputation,  by  the  publica- 
tion of  many  valuable  original  contributions  to  bi- 


26 

ological  and  chemical  science.  During  the  second 
half  of  our  incorporate  existence,  the  Dumber  of 
scientific  graduates  already  occupying  enviable 
positions,  by  reason  of  the  acquisition  at  the 
University  of  independent  methods  of  research,  is 
too  large  for  specific  mention.  Whether  scattered 
over  the  world,  from  Oregon  to  Southern  Africa, 
or  retained  in  the  immediate  personal  service  of 
their  alma  mater,  their  lives  are  a  continual 
tribute  to  the  excellence  of  their  University 
training. 

The  introduction  of  the  laboratory  method  of 
instruction  in  natural  science,  which  was  hardly 
known  in  eastern  institutions  in  connection  with 
required  courses  of  study,  became  a  prominent 
feature  with  us  even  in  our  elementary  courses; 
and  it  is  a  noteworthy  fact  that  practically  the 
same  method  of  instruction  has  been  extended  to 
all  departments  of  the  University  of  Kansas.  Stu- 
dents in  historical  and  political  science,  in  ancient 
and  modern  languages,  in  philosophy,  music  and 
art,  are  to-day  feeling  the  impulse  of  the  method 
adopted  in  the  early  years.  They  are  cautioned 
by  all  our  professors  to  beware  of  servile  depend- 
ence upon  any  author  or  text-book,  and  are  con- 
stantly encouraged  to  investigate  the  original 
sources  of  information,  in  the  lecture-room,  the 
library  and  the  private  study,  as  well  as  in  the 
laboratory,  the  apparatus -room  and  the  field.  The 
success    of   our   graduates   in   journalism,   politics, 


27 

literature,  pedagogics,  and  in  more  strictly  profes- 
sional life,  lias  been  hardly  less  marked  than  in 
scientific  lines.  In  these  pursuits,  also,  they  have 
shown  the  ability  to  attain  conspicuous  pre-emi- 
nence. The  attempt  to  enumerate  the  notable 
examples  of  post-graduate  success  would  result  in 
the  special  mention  of  a  very  large  number  of  the 
names  upon  our  roll  of  Alumni. 

Summarizing  my  conception  of  what  the  Uni- 
versity has  been,  I  should  say  that  for  the  first 
six  years  of  its  history  it  was  a  High  School, 
pure  and  simple,  with  some  premonitions  of  an 
approaching  collegiate  character ;  for  the  next 
twelve  years  it  was  a  college  as  to  its  anterior 
portion,  but  with  a  very  extensive  High  School 
posterior  appendage.  And  as  in  the  embryonic 
development  of  every  individual  animal  of  the 
highest  morphological  rank,  this  appendage  is 
gradually  abbreviated  until  externally,  at  least, 
it  is  entirely  obliterated,  so  the  Preparatory  De- 
partment of  this  University  has  been  gradually 
diminishing  from  view  during  the  last  six  years, 
until  one  more  year  will  witness  its  complete  ex- 
tinction. This  long -looked -for  result  has  been 
somewhat  precipitated  by  formal  act  of  the  last 
session  of  the  Legislature.  What  now  remains 
of  the  Preparatory  Department,  although  dignified 
by  the  term  Sub  -  Freshman  class,  may  be  fairly 
considered  as  in  the  nature  of  a  rudimentary 
organ,  at   the    present   time   rather   useless  or   in- 


28 

jurious,  than  beneficial  to  the  institution,  but 
indicating  a  former  lower  stage  of  development 
in  which  it  was  absolutely  essential  to  the  exist- 
ence of  the  organism.  In  our  first  catalogue 
we  announced  that  the  Preparatory  Department 
would  be  discontinued  in  a  few  years,  and  it 
might  have  tempted  some  members  of  the  Fac- 
ulty to  present  their  resignations  if  announce- 
ment had  been  made  that  a  quarter  of  a  century 
would  elapse  before  its  removal  would  become 
complete. 

We  come  next  to  consider  the  question  of  the 
present  condition  of  the  institution.  It  has  been 
a  High  School,  a  College,  and  it  is  now  in  the 
transition  stage  from  College  to  University,  with 
some  of  the  best  points  of  the  college,  and  some 
of  the  peculiar  characteristics  of  a  University. 
The  college,  as  I  take  it,  is  an  institution  in 
which  a  certain  definite  course  of  study,  limited 
in  range  from  limitation  of  endowment  or  equip- 
ment, leads  to  a  certain  definite  degree,  all  stu- 
dents being  required  to  pursue  the  line  of  study 
laid  down  in  the  curriculum  with  the  minimum 
amount  of  deviation  in  the  way  of  elective  studies. 
The  ideal  University  is  an  institution  in  which 
all  branches  of  learning  are  thrown  open  to  the 
student,  who  presumably  has  reached  full  maturity, 
and  is  therefore  allowed  to  choose  freely  for  him- 
self his  course  of  study,  without  prescriptive  ac- 
tion   on    the    part   of    the    University   authorities. 


29 

The  present  condition  of  this  institution  there- 
fore cannot  be  that  of  an  ideal  University,  since 
in  the  first  place  it  is  not  within  the  possibility 
of  our  present  equipment  received  from  the  State 
of  Kansas  to  offer  to  Kansas  youth  the  best  in- 
struction in  all  branches  of  learning.  But  we 
need  not  feel  ashamed  of  our  limitation  in  this 
respect,  since  no  University  in  existence,  even 
among  the  famous  institutions  of  Germany,  has 
attained  the  perfect  ideal  of  faultless  instruction 
in  all  departments  of  knowledge.  The  student 
goes  to  Berlin  for  its  supremacy  in  certain  de- 
partments, to  Leipzig,  Heidelberg,  Gottingen,  for 
their  pre-eminence  in  other  departments.  It  is 
not  within  the  bounds  of  possibility  that  the  ab- 
solute ideal  should  be  attained  by  any  one  insti- 
tution. But  we  can  continually  make  advances 
toward  the  loftiest  conceptions  in  the  full  con- 
viction that  in  Kansas,  if  any  State  in  the  Union, 
liberal  provision  will  be  made  for  the  best  pos- 
sible instruction  of  our  young  men  and  women. 

Nor,  in  the  second  place,  are  we  an  ideal  Uni- 
versity, because  the  young  people  who  graduate 
from  the  High  Schools  of  the  State  have  not 
reached  that  maturity  which  would  justify  their 
being  permitted  to  make  an  unrestricted  choice 
of  their  studies  during  the  entire  four-years  course 
which  the  institution  requires  for  graduation.  I 
do  not  say  this  to  the  disparagement  of  the  young 
people  of  the  High  Schools  of  the  State  of  Kan- 


30 

sas,  for  I  am  convinced  that  the  High  Schools  of 
no  State  in  the  Union  are  able  to  furnish  the 
maturity  of  mind  in  their  graduates  which  would 
justify  their  immediate  entrance  upon  a  purely 
University  system.  A  University  whose  attendance 
should  be  strictly  limited  to  graduate  students, 
corresponding  with  the  theoretical,  but  not  actual, 
organization  of  Johns  Hopkins  University,  would 
be  able  to  make  a  very  near  approximation  to 
this  ideal;  but  the  undergraduate  students  of  the 
two  lower  classes  of  all  our  American  colleges 
and  universities  are,  in  the  great  majority  of 
cases,  both  too  young  and  immature  to  make  it  a 
safe  experiment  to  fully  entrust  to  them  the  se- 
lection of  their  studies.  I  would,  however,  allow 
to  Freshmen  and  Sophomores  the  choice  of  the 
general  course  of  training  to  be  pursued,  the 
range  of  their  choice  extending  to  no  less  than 
six  prescribed  two-year  courses  in  this  institution 
at  the  present  time.  At  the  beginning  of  the 
last  two  years  of  the  University  quadrennium  suf- 
cient  maturity  of  judgment  has,  by  our  own 
experience  for  the  past  five  years,  been  demon- 
strated to  be  in  the  possession  of  the  average 
undergraduate  to  justify  the  extension  to  him  of 
a  free  choice  of  his  studies  for  the  Junior 
and  Senior  years.  The  freedom  of  the  choice, 
however,  should  be  limited  to  such  an  extent 
as  seems  necessary  to  secure  on  the  one  hand 
a    positive    and    practical    concentration  of   effort 


31 

in  some  one  favorite  direction,  and  on  the 
other  hand  a  breadth  of  knowledge  and  cul- 
ture which  will  rescue  the  student  from  the 
belittling  influence  of  a  narrow,  intense  spe- 
cialization. To  indicate  the  range  of  possibilities 
in  the  choices  of  the  two  upper  classes  of  this 
institution,  it  will  suffice  to  state  that  no  fewer 
than  ninety-three  courses  of  study,  in  seventeen 
different  departments  of  investigation,  are  now 
offered  to  the  Juniors  and  Seniors. 

The  introduction  of  this  system  of  regulated 
optionals  has  proved  to  be  a  great  success.  On 
the  one  hand,  our  students,  freed  from  the  arbi- 
trary, iron-bound  prescriptive  system  of  former 
days,  enter  into  their  work  with  the  satisfaction 
and  enthusiasm  which  inevitably  accompany  the 
exercise  of  a  choice  involving  personal  responsi- 
bility. On  the  other  hand,  the  members  of  the 
faculty,  entering  unconsciously  into  friendly  com- 
petition for  students  to  pursue  their  offered  op- 
tionals, are  stimulated  to  greater  personal  effort 
for  the  improvement  of  their  qualifications  for 
giving  instruction.  The  most  abstruse  and  tech- 
nical branches  of  literature  and  science  are  thus 
made  to  assume  the  greatest  possible  degree  of 
attractiveness,  and  it  is  an  extremely  rare  occur- 
rence for  any  one  of  the  large  number  of  offered 
courses  to  be  destitute  of  students.  It  cannot, 
however,  be  considered  a  legitimate  inference  that 
the  value   of   an    optional    course    and  the  ability 


32 

of  a  professor  to  give,  instruction  in  li is  depart- 
ment are  to  be  measured  solely  by  the  number 
of  students  to  be  found  in  these  courses.  The 
quality  of  the  half-dozen  students  selecting  a 
certain  course  will  be  a  better  recommendation 
of  both  course  and  professor,  than  the  quantity, 
by  the  dozen,  of  students  in  some  other  course 
not  requiring  the  same  amount  of  labor  from 
either  student  or  professor. 

It  has  become  a  marked  characteristic  of  our 
University,  that  the  relations  of  students  and 
faculty  are  to  a  large  extent  free  from  that  re- 
straint which  in  many  high-grade  educational  in- 
stitutions springs  from  the  imposition  upon  the 
body  of  students  of  unyielding  courses  of  study. 
It  does  not  facilitate  the  growth  of  personal  friend- 
ship between  professor  and  student  to  allow  no 
value  to  the  student's  personal  likes  and  dislikes. 
"When  the  student  recites  to  a  professor  solely  be- 
cause he  is  compelled  to,  there  is  sure  to  be  a 
chasm  of  separation  when  the  topic  of  study  is 
distasteful  to  the  student.  But  when  a  course  of 
study  is  voluntarily  selected  by  the  student  him- 
self, although  the  choice  is  regulated  by  certain 
rules,  and  when  the  student  recites  to  a  professor 
because  the  subject  is  attractive,  the  conditions 
are  all  favorable  for  intimate  personal  relation  be- 
tween the  parties  to  the  contract.  The  informal 
conversational  style  of  communication  which  pre- 
vails in  our  laboratories   and  libraries,  as  well  as 


33 

in  the  lecture-rooms,  the  seminaries,  and  the  lit- 
erary and  scientific  clubs,  is  possible  only  among 
friends  mutually  absorbed  in  considering  great 
themes. 

Summarizing  m}^  conception  of  what  the  Uni- 
versity now  is,  I  repeat  that  it  is  in  a  state  of 
transition  from  the  College  to  the  University. 

My  conception  of  what  it  will  become  in  the 
future  is  perhaps  of  more  significance  on  the 
present  occasion,  as  giving  some  indication  of  the 
probable  policy  of  the  incoming  administration. 
While  thoroughly  believing  in  the  uplifting  in- 
fluence of  a  perfect  ideal,  and  acknowledging  to 
the  fullest  extent  the  imperative  obligation  which 
rests  upon  the  University  authorities  to  make  the 
nearest  possible  approach  to  this  perfect  ideal,  I  can 
not  overlook  the  fact  that  it  would  be  suicidal  to 
attempt  the  sudden  transformation  of  the  institu- 
tion, as  it  now  is,  into  the  faultless  educational 
structure  which  it  may  become  with  a  more 
favorable  environment  in  the  far-distant  future, 
but  which  has  no  actual  illustration  either  in 
Europe  or  America.  The  great  European  Uni- 
versities, and  the  best  American  Universities,  are 
the  product  of  a  gradual  development  of  educa- 
tional ideas  through  a  long  series  of  years. 
Harvard  is  Harvard,  and  Yale  is  Yale,  and 
Princeton  is  Princeton  to -clay,  because  of  the  pe- 
culiarities of  Massachusetts  and  Connecticut  and 
New  Jersey  life  which  have  entered  into  the  fun- 


34 

damental  structure  of  those  institutions,  making 
them  to  differ  from  each  other  as  the  political 
and  ecclesiastical  history  of  their  respective  States 
has  continually  differed.  And  so  the  University 
of  Kansas  must  be  a  Kansas  University.  It  can- 
not be  a  mere  ideality,  offering  to  Kansas  youth  a 
theoretical  culture  adapted  to  a  state  of  society  as 
pictured  by  Edward  Bellamy  for  a  far-away  fu- 
ture time.  It  must  be  adapted  to  actual  Kansas 
of  the  last  decade  of  the  19th  century,  and  not 
to  actual  Massachusetts,  or  Connecticut,  or  New- 
Jersey,  or  England,  or  Germany.  By  these  state- 
ments I  must  not  be  interpreted  as  holding  that 
the  process  of  development  of  our  Kansas  Univer- 
sity will  be  as  painfully  slow  as  that  of  Harvard, 
which  has  required  a  quarter  of  a  thousand  years 
to  reach  its  present  condition.  The  development 
of  the  University  of  Kansas  must  keep  rapid  pace 
with  the  development  of  the  State  itself.  The 
State  of  Kansas  has  accomplished  as  much,  in  each 
brief  year  of  its  existence  as  a  State,  as  has  been 
accomplished  in  ten  years  in  the  history  of  the 
most  highly  favored  of  the  New  England  States. 
There  has  been  no  more  magnificent  spectacle  in 
American  history  than  the  almost  magical  rapid- 
ity with  which  Kansas  has  been  transformed  from 
the  hunting-ground  of  the  Indian  and  the  pasture- 
land  of  the  bison  into  a  great  agricultural  em- 
pire, with  population  already  greater  than  that  of 
Massachusetts  when  Kansas  was    admitted   to   the 


35 

Union.  The  University  lias  kept  even  pace  with 
the  State  in  its  remarkable  progress,  and  must 
continue  to  advance  as  rapidly  as  will  be  consist- 
ent with  the  safe  preservation  of  its  precious  gains 
and  conducive  to  the  most  perfect  harmony  of  its 
condition  with  that  of  its  protecting  parent.  For- 
tunate in  having  been  able  to  avoid  the  introduction 
into  its  organization  and  methods  of  administration 
of  some  elements  of  weakness  which  kindred  in- 
stitutions of  older  States  are  still  struggling  to 
overcome,  it  is  now  in  an  efficient  working  con- 
dition, ready  to  improve  every  opportunity  to 
make  further  advances  toward  the  unattained  and 
ever  unattainable  ideal. 

If  I  am  not  mistaken,  the  most  important  step 
towards  making  this  institution  in  reality,  what  it 
is  in  name,  a  genuine  Kansas  University,  is  the 
establishment  of  a  closer  and  more  vital  connec- 
tion with  the  entire  public -school  system  of  the 
State.  In  the  brief  time  which  has  elapsed  since 
my  personal  attention  was  more  especially  called 
to  this  subject,  I  have  discovered  in  my  visits  to 
High  Schools  that  the  University  is  hardly  re- 
garded as  sustaining  a  more  intimate  relation  to 
these  schools  than  any  private  denominational 
college  in  Kansas,  or  even  than  colleges  in  other 
States  than  Kansas.  I  have  found  principals  of 
these  schools  in  some  cases  not  only  failing  to 
recognize  the  natural  organic  unity  which  by  the 
very  law    of   its  incorporation    binds  the  Univer- 


36 

sity  to  the  schools,  but  expressing  unfeigned 
surprise  when  their  attention  is  called  to  the 
fact.  I  have  found  other  public  school  officials 
instead  of  directing  the  attention  of  their  grad- 
uates to  the  State  University  as  the  most 
natural  and  desirable  institution  of  learning 
wherein  to  obtain  collegiate  training,  actually 
neglecting  to  mention  this  institution  with 
favor,  and  directing  their  young  men  and  wo- 
men to  institutions  in  which  the  educational 
equipment  is  so  manifestly  inferior,  that  to 
spend  four  years  within  their  walls  involves  not 
only  a  wasteful  expenditure  of  time  and  money, 
but  a  serious  crippling  of  the  intellectual  powers 
for  which  no  subsequent  regrets  can  make  amends. 
Sending  a  boy  to  an  inferior  college  when  a  su- 
perior one  is  within  ready  reach,  is  like  dwarfing 
his  physical  nature  by  feeding  him  upon  a  starva- 
tion diet  when  an  abundant  supply  of  nutritious 
food  is  to  be  had  for  the  asking.  The  remedy 
for  this  condition  of  ignorance  and  shortsighted- 
ness will  consist  in  an  organized  effort  on  the 
part  of  the  friends  of  our  public -school  system 
to  secure  the  recognition  of  the  fact  that  the 
University  is  as  indissolubly  connected  with  the 
public  High  Schools  as  is  the  High  School  with 
the  grammar  schools,  or  the  grammar  school  with 
the  primary  grades.  And  this  organized  effort 
must  continue  until  the  passage  of  a  student  from 
the  High  School  into   the   State  University  shall 


37 

be  made  with  the  same  facility  with  which  he 
now  passes  from  the  lower  grades  into  the  High 
School.  For  the  wide -spread  ignorance  in  large 
portions  of  the  State  in  regard  to  the  character 
of  the  University,  an  ignorance  most  extreme 
among  that  large  class  of  otherwise  well-informed 
citizens  who  have  never  heard  of  the  existence 
of  such  an  institution,  the  University  authorities 
themselves  are,  perhaps,  largely  to  blame.  It 
should  be  made  known  in  every  township  in  the 
State,  by  a  free  distribution  of  printer's  ink  and 
by  visits  from  University  officials,  that  the  State 
of  Kansas  places  within  the  reach  of  every  child 
within  her  borders,  without  money  and  without 
price,  a  wide  range  of  educational  culture,  clas- 
sical and  scientific,  theoretical  and  practical, 
either  alone  or  all  combined.  Letters  are  almost 
daily  received  inquiring  what  charges  are  made 
by  the  University  for  her  superior  privileges. 
Let  it  be  proclaimed  so  that  every  earnest 
young  Kansan  may  clearly  understand  the  fact, 
that  the  State  offers  here  advanced  educational 
advantages  entirely  without  charge  for  entrance 
fees  or  tuition.  Let  it  be  universally  under- 
stood that  while  other  institutions  impose  upon 
each  student  an  annual  tuition  fee  of  from 
fifty  to  two  hundred  dollars,  our  own  great- 
hearted commonwealth  bestows  a  free  scholarship 
at  her  University  upon  every  one  of  her  sons  and 
daughters    who    is    prepared    to  make   use  of  her 


38 

generosity.  Let  it  be  everywhere  made  known 
that  at  the  University  of  the  State,  every  BOB 
and  daughter  of  the  State  may  receive  the  special 
training  which  makes  chemists,  naturalists,  ento- 
mologists, electricians,  engineers,  lawyers,  musi- 
cians, pharmacists  and  artists,  or  the  broader  and 
more  symmetrical  culture  which  prepares  those 
who  receive  it  for  that  general,  well  -  rounded 
efficiency  which  makes  the  educated  man  a  suc- 
cess in  any  line  of  intellectual  activity,  ten  years 
earlier  in  life  than  the  uneducated  man.  In 
short,  a  good  deal  of  judicious  advertising  out- 
side of  the  customary  distribution  of  the  annual 
catalogue,  will  at  the  present  juncture  be  of  in- 
calculable advantage  to  the  University  of  Kansas. 
And  while  this  general  distribution  of  funda- 
mental facts  is  being  made,  let  the  effort  to  more 
thoroughly  harmonize  the  University  with  the 
High  Schools  be  persistently  carried  forward.  A 
very  erroneous  impression  has  in  some  quarters 
prevailed  in  regard  to  the  attitude  of  the  Univer- 
sity in  reference  to  the  accomplishment  of  this 
desirable  result.  It  has  been  thought  that  this 
movement  was  a  purely  selfish  one  for  the  pur- 
pose of  multiplying  the  number  of  u feeders"  for 
the  Freshman  class.  But  this  is  far  from  being 
the  case.  The  University  was  established  by  the 
State,  and  is  now  being  generously  supported  by 
the  State,  in  order  that  the  largest  possible  num- 
ber of  earnest-minded  young   Kansans    may  reap 


39 

the  benefit  of  her  generosity.  And  it  is  a  most 
encouraging  circumstance  connected  with  the  pres- 
ent discussion  of  this  important  question,  that  the 
discussion  originated  among  the  High- School  men 
themselves,  who  invited  the  Faculty  of  the  Uni- 
versity to  hold  a  friendly  conference  with  them  on 
the  6th  of  April  last.  At  this  convention  a  strong 
conviction  was  expressed  by  the  representatives  of 
the  High  Schools  that  the  University  require- 
ments for  admission  to  the  Freshman  class  were 
so  far  in  advance  of  the  capacity  of  the  average 
High  School  as  to  produce  an  impassable  chasm, 
whereby  large  numbers  of  the  brightest  Kansas 
boys  and  girls  were  kept  from  entering  the  Uni- 
versity, and  were  thereby  compelled  to  enter  infe- 
rior colleges  whose  requirements  were  less  rigorous. 
The  sincerity  of  these  High -School  principals  made 
a  deep  impression  upon  the  University  Faculty, 
and  the  problem  of  bridging  the  chasm  of  separa- 
tion without  essentially  lowering  the  standard  of 
admission  was  referred  to  a  committee  of  confer- 
ence. The  final  outcome  of  this  friendly  meeting 
was  the  recommendation  of  an  additional  High- 
School  course  preparatory  to  the  Freshman  class, 
in  which  only  one  of  the  two  foreign  languages 
required  in  the  other  courses  was  retained,  the 
place  of  the  second  foreign  language  being  sup- 
plied by  the  careful  study  of  our  own  mother- 
tongue.  Thus  has  arisen  the  so-called  Latin - 
English  preparatory  course,  which  was  more  fully 


40 

elaborated  at  the  City  Superintendents1  Conven- 
tion at  Topeka,  May  9th,  and  put  into  shape  for 
official  recommendation  to  the  High  Schools  of 
Kansas.  This  recommendation,  proceeding  from 
the  school  officials  and  not  from  the  University, 
has  been  heartily  approved  by  our  Faculty  and 
Board  of  Regents,  and  will  doubtless  meet  with  a 
favorable  reception  on  the  part  of  the  schools. 
It  is  a  three-years  course,  in  which  Latin,  English 
and  Mathematics  constitute  the  bulk  of  the  work, 
with  the  addition  of  enough  history,  physical  sci- 
ence, civil  government  and  drawing  to  comply 
with  the  University  demands.  It  is  conceded  by 
all  that  this  course  furnishes  a  good  practical 
training  for  the  majority  of  our  High-School  grad- 
uates who  never  go  beyond  the  High- School  cur- 
riculum. It  therefore  fully  meets  the  objection 
that  the  High-School  courses  should  not  be  ar- 
ranged solely  to  suit  the  demands  of  the  minority 
who  go  on  with  their  studies  in  the  University 
or  in  some  other  institution.  It  is  a  good  course, 
both  for  those  who  go  and  for  those  who  do  not 
go  to  the  higher  schools  of  learning,  and  will  un- 
doubtedly be  the  means  of  bringing  into  connec- 
tion with  the  University  many  whose  education 
would  otherwise  have  ended  with  the  High  School. 
It  is  not  intended  as  a  substitute  for  the  Latin 
and  Greek,  the  Latin  and  German  and  the  French 
and  German  preparatory  courses,  but  as  an  addi- 
tional course,  which  will  prove  attractive  to  many 


41 

who  believe  that  the  study  of  the  English  lan- 
guage can  be  made  as  profitable  for  mental  train- 
ing and  as  valuable  for  information  as  the  study 
of  a  foreign  language. 

To  connect  with  this  new  Preparatory  course, 
the  Faculty  and  Regents  have  established  two 
new  University  courses  for  the  Freshman  and 
Sophomore  years,  one  of  which  involves  a  con- 
tinuation of  the  Latin-English  studies,  while  the 
other  is  termed  a  General  Language  course,  and 
admits  of  the  pursuit  of  any  two  of  the  three 
foreign  languages — Greek,  German,  and  French. 
Each  of  these  new  courses  leads  to  the  Junior 
and  Senior  optional  system,  and  the  student  at 
graduation  is  awarded  the  degree  of  Bachelor  of 
Arts.  Each  new  course,  having  been  made  equal, 
in  capacity  to  confer  discipline  and  information, 
to  the  Classical  and  Modern  Literature  courses, 
is  placed  upon  a  full  equality  with  them  in  the 
resulting  degree,  instead  of  being  stigmatized  as 
inferior  by  the  concoction  of  some  new  combina- 
tion of  honorary  letters.  Thus  our  beloved  Uni- 
versity, while  still  retaining  and  holding  in  high 
estimation  the  old  classical  training  in  Latin  and 
Greek,  admits  to  a  full  and  honorable  equality 
the  combination  of  Latin  with  the  modern  lan- 
guages, including  our  own  complex  and  sturdy, 
not  always  euphonious,  but  always  expressive, 
mother -tongue. 

Dr.  Allen    Starr,    Chairman   of   the    Committee 


42 

on  the  Princeton  College  curriculum,  in  a  recent 
carefully  prepared  paper  on  the  methods  now  in 
use  at  his  alma  mater,  gives  hint  of  a  possible 
future  change  in  the  requirements  for  admission 
to  that  college,  by  which  the  necessity  for  mak- 
ing up  deficiencies  in  Greek  may  he  avoided. 
What  Princeton  and  other  eastern  colleges  are 
strongly  desiring,  but  hardly  daring  to  suggest 
except  in  almost  inaudible  whispers,  viz.,  the  ad- 
mission of  candidates  for  the  degree  of  Bachelor 
of  Arts  without  a  knowledge  of  the  Greek  lan- 
guage, has  for  many  years  been  an  accomplished 
fact  in  the  Modern  Literature  course  of  the  Uni- 
versity of  Kansas,  and  is  now  made  also  possible 
in  our  Latin  English  and  General  Language 
courses.  It  is  in  this  way  that  a  nearer  approach 
is  being  made  to  the  true  University  ideal,  which 
regards  mathematics,  science,  language,  and  the 
other  humanities  as  necessarily  represented  in 
every  properly  organized  curriculum  for  general 
culture,  bnt  leaves  largely  to  the  selection  of  the 
individual  student  the  specific  branches  under 
each   of   these    four  divisions. 

If  yonr  attention  has  been  held  by  the  preced- 
ing recital  of  what  has  transpired  in  the  past 
three  months  in  the  direction  of  harmonizing  the 
University  with  the  High  Schools,  you  will  have 
come  to  the  conclusion  that  much  has  already 
been  accomplished  toward  placing  the  institution 
in  its  true  position  as  the  Kansas  State  Univer- 


48 

sity.  It  will  l>e  the  policy  of  my  administration 
to  adopt  all  reasonable  measures  to  increase  the 
strength  of  this  bond  of  union  between  the  head 
and  the  body  of  the  public-school  system. 

In  the  next  place  I  shall  look  for  a  financial 
support  from  the  State  Legislature  which  will 
enable  us  to  retain  the  strong  men  now  included 
in  the  corps  of  instruction.  These  men  should 
receive  such  salaries  that  the  tempting  offers  of 
large  compensation  from  eastern  colleges  will  not 
deprive  the  youth  of  Kansas  of  the  best  talent 
available  for  their  instruction.  So  long  as  the 
Kansas  University  constitutes  a  promising  recruit- 
ing ground  for  the  Presidents  of  eastern  colleges, 
it  will  be  impossible  for  her  to  accomplish  re- 
sults which  come  only  by  the  persistent  effort  of 
able  men  to  build  up  their  several  departments. 
It  may  be  a  matter  of  pride  to  us  that  our  Uni- 
versity should  have  furnished  professors  to  Cornell, 
to  Williams,  and  to  Harvard,  but  such  pride  can 
be  indulged  in  only  at  the  expense  of  the  men- 
tal development  of  our  own  sons  and  daughters. 
The  exercise  of  that  business  sagacity  which 
would  secure  the  retention  of  a  professor  at  an 
increased  salary,  would  be  far  preferable  to  un- 
profitable pride  in  connection  with  his  departure. 
The  self-respect  of  a  professor  should  not  be  too 
heavily  sacrificed  to  his  patriotic  desire  to  serve 
the  State  of  Kansas. 

The  strength  of  the  University  will  depend  on 


44 

the  strength  of  the  men  who  make  up  its  faculty. 
Brains,  and  not  "bricks  nnd  mortar  alone,  give  a 
University  prestige  and  renown.  It  is  now  time 
to  turn  the  tables  upon  the  eastern  colleges  by 
calling  from  them  their  best  men  for  the  educa- 
tional service  of  the  Sunflower  State.  A  good 
beginning  has  just  been  made  by  the  election  of 
a  professor  of  Yale  University  to  the  chair  of 
Geology  and  Paleontology.  It  may  however  be 
doubted  if  the  appointment  would  have  been 
accepted,  at  a  pecuniary  sacrifice,  if  the  appointee 
had  not  been  a  Kansas  man,  whose  great  ambition 
has  always  been  to  develop  the  geologic  wealth 
of  his  native  State  in  the  service  of  her  Univer- 
sity. The  State  should  take  pride  in  honoring 
the  services  of  such  patriotic  men  by  relieving 
them  from  the  necessity  of  anxious  thought  for 
the  pecuniary  needs  of  the  future.  Relief  from 
a  burden  of  this  character  will  increase  the  value 
of  the  services  of  any  professor  to  a  much  greater 
proportional  extent  than  the  amount  of  the  addi- 
tion made  to  his  salary. 

But  salary  alone  will  not  keep  the  right  sort  of 
men  in  a  University  faculty.  There  are  other  con- 
siderations more  potent  than  pecuniary  ones  which 
influence  an  able  professor  to  begin  and  continue 
his  connection  with  an  institution  of  learning. 
Of  even  more  importance  than  salary  is  the 
equipment  of  the  department  which  demands  his 
services.     No   man  with   the  right   sort    of   ambi- 


45 

tion  will  be  satisfied  to  remain  in  a  college  whose 
managers  decline  to  furnish  a  generous  provision 
in  the  line  of  apparatus,  books,  and  properly 
constructed  lecture-rooms  and  laboratories.  Other 
things  being  equal,  that  University  which  can 
furnish  the  most  efficient  and  abundant  literary 
and  scientific  tools  of  instruction  will  secure  and 
retain  the  most  competent  faculty.  Libraries, 
museums,  chemical,  physical  and  philosophical  ap- 
paratus are  essential  to  the  permanent  retention 
of  the  best  professors  as  well  as  for  the  attraction 
of  the  best  students. 

Still  another  requisite  for  the  enlistment  and 
retention  of  the  most  valuable  men  in  an  educa- 
tional institution  is  the  opportunity  afforded  them 
for  original  investigation  in  their  favorite  lines  of 
research.  The  professor  whose  mental  energy  is 
exhausted  by  from  three  to  six  hours  per  day  in 
the  class-room  or  students1  laboratory,  will  be 
unable  in  his  own  laboratory  and  library  to  pro- 
duce results  which  will  make  his  University 
famous  for  the  discovery  of  new  truths  in  any 
branch  of  learning.  In  the  model  University 
which  our  own  institution  aspires  some  clay  to 
become,  it  will  be  considered  incumbent  upon  the 
members  of  the  faculty  not  only  to  teach  the  old 
truth,  but  also  to  discover  new  truth.  And  the 
professor  who  reveals  the  ability  to  add  to  the 
stock  of  human  knowledge  by  his  own  investiga- 
tions, should  be  encouraged  to  make  the  most  of 


4<; 

his  ability  by  being  released  from  a  large  portion 
of  the  class-room  work  which  others,  not  possess- 
ing his  genius,  can  even  more  successfully  under- 
take. There  are  professors  at  Harvard,  Johns 
Hopkins  and  Clark  Universities  who  are  entirely 
relieved  from  the  work  of  instruction,  because  by 
their  original  investigations  they  are  thought  to 
confer  greater  distinction  upon  the  institutions 
which  command  their  services,  and  thereby  attract 
more  students  within  their  walls,  than  if  they  were 
required  to  devote  their  chief  energies  to  the  work 
of  instruction.  But  there  is  a  golden  mean,  here 
as  everywhere  else,  and  it  will  be  found  that  a 
fair  amount  of  class  instruction  is  a  stimulus 
rather  than  a  hindrance  to  original  work. 

Recapitulating  my  conception  of  what  the  Uni- 
versity of  Kansas  is  to  be  in  the  future,  I  insist 
upon  these  points  as  essential.  In  the  first  place, 
it  is  to  be  a  thoroughly  Kansas  institution.  It  is 
to  be  an  indissolubly  integral  part  of  the  public  - 
school  system,  in  complete  harmony  with  it  and 
worthily  crowning  it.  In  the  second  place,  it 
is  to  hold  its  pre-eminent  position  in  the  State 
of  Kansas  and  among  the  great  educational  insti- 
tutions of  the  United  States  by  calling  and 
keeping  in  its  service,  against  all  competition,  a 
strong  body  of  professors  with  an  unquenchable 
enthusiasm  of  learning.  The  State  is  to  retain 
these  intellectual  and  moral  guides  of  her  sons 
and  daughters  by  furnishing  them  with  adequate 


47 

pecuniary  remuneration,  and  by  giving  them  such 
apparatus  for    instruction   and  such  opportunities 
for    discovering    truth    as    to    satisfy    their    most 
earnest    cravings    for    intellectual    growth.     With 
such  a    faculty,    and    such  a    connection  with   the 
lower  public  schools  as  I  have  described,  the  Uni- 
versity of    Kansas  will    suffer   no   lack  of    noble- 
minded    students  from  every  county  in  the  State. 
There  will  be  no  occasion  for  any  citizen  to  send 
his  sons  and  daughters  to  distant  States  and  climes 
to    seek    that    educational    equipment    which    can 
.  be  obtained  with  greater  facility  within  the  walls 
of    this  University.     For    the    accomplishment    of 
this   great  result,  the    generous    financial    support 
of   the  State  of   Kansas  must  be  freely  extended, 
not  in  advance  of   her  actual    ability,  but  in  fair 
proportion   to    her   increasing    pecuniary  capacity. 
Appropriations  for  the  feeble-minded,  the  unsound- 
minded,  the  physically  deficient,  the    pauper   and 
the  criminal,  should    not   be   reduced    in  amount; 
but  it  should  be  distinctly  remembered  that  sound- 
minded,   able-bodied   boys    and    girls  are   entitled 
to  an  opportunity  for   securing   the  be  st  possible 
preparation  for  life,  in  the  University  of  a  State 
which    never    does    anything    by  halves,   and    has 
ever  shown  a  disposition  to  manifest  especial  lib- 
erality where  the  educational  needs  of  her  children 
are  concerned. 

I  look   forward   with   confidence  to  a  period  in 
the    lifetime    of   many    within   the   hearing  of  my 


48 

voice  to-day,  when  by  public  generosity  aided  by 
private  munificence  Mt.  Oread  shall  be  covered 
with  educational  structures,  faultlessly  planned, 
devoted  to  the  various  departments  of  science 
and  the  humanities,  thronged  with  thousands  of 
students  from  this  and  other  States  intent  upon 
the  greatest  possible  development  of  the  immortal 
mind  and  soul.  For  the  hastening  onward  of 
this  educational  millennium  let  every  loyal  Kan- 
san  bend  his  strongest  energies  until  no  township 
in  this  great  commonwealth  shall  be  so  remote  as 
to  fail  to  receive  some  degree  of  inspiration  to 
right  thinking  and  right  living  from  the  far- 
reaching  and  ever- elevating  influence  of  the  Uni- 
versity of  Kansas. 


Relations   between  the  University 
and  Material  Progress. 


COL.  JOHN  J.  McCOOK,  A.M.,  LL  D. 


Moke  than  merely  formal  thanks  are  due  to  you 
for  having  invited  me  to  come  from  the  East  and 
address  the  authorities,  students  and  friends  of  this 
great  Western  seat  of  learning.  There  we  are  so 
so  overwhelmed  by  the  marvelous  material  prog- 
ress of  the  country  beyond  the  Mississippi,  that 
we  are  sometimes  inclined  to  forget  the  simulta- 
neous growth  of  the  Western  universities,  which 
are  working  silently,  but  powerfully,  and  without 
which  all  material  progress  is  barren  and  unendur- 
ing. 

Among  all  human  institutions,  universities  are 
the  most  lasting.  They  survive  changes  of  gov- 
ernment, the  strifes  of  factions,  the  revolutions  of 
religion.  They  seem  almost  to  contradict  the 
statement  of  Hume,  that  we  cannot  expect  that 
stability  in  the  works  of  man  which  the  Almighty 
has  denied  to  His  own  creations.  It  is,  however, 
the  rapid  development  of  higher  education  in  con- 
nection with  the  great  advance  of  practical  inter - 

(49) 


50 

ests  in  the  United  States,  which  ha-  Led  me  to 
suggest  to  you  to-day  a  few  thoughts  on  the  sub- 
ject of  the  relation  existing  between  the  university 
and  material  progress. 

It  has  been  observed  by  the  English  historian, 
Mr.  Lecky,  that  where  great  political  activity 
prevails,  men  are  but  little  disposed  to  make 
theories,  but  that  in  more  tranquil  periods  men 
turn  to  reflection.  There  is  a  plausibility  about 
this  view  which  disappears  when  one  looks  at 
history. 

If  we  take,  for  example,  the  condition  of  an- 
cient Greece,  we  find  that  the  time  of  its  greatest 
political  activity  was  also  the  time  of  its  greatest 
intellectual  advancement.  The  age  of  Pericles, 
the  Augustan  age  of  the  Greeks,  w^as  that  which 
witnessed  the  career  of  Socrates,  the  rise  of  the 
Academy  and  of  the  Lyceum,  the  establishment 
of  the  schools  of  Sophists,  and  the  development 
of  a  critical  historical  spirit. 

The  time  of  the  Caesars,  when  what  was  rela- 
tively the  greatest  object  of  Koine's  ambition, 
the  conquest  of  the  world,  was  sought,  was  also 
the  time  when  Latin  literature  reached  its  high- 
est point  of  excellence,  and  was  preparing  the 
inspiration  of  European  literature  throughout 
many  centuries. 

Even  the  middle  ages,  beginning  with  the  reign 
of  Charlemagne,  were  marked  by  striking  contem- 
poraneous   movements    of    activity    and    thought. 


51 

With  the  eastward  advance  of  European  armies 
toward  the  Holy  Sepulchre,  was  contemporary  the 
westward  march  of  oriental  philosophy  for  the 
conquest  of  catholic  thought.  Side  by  side  with 
feudal  castles,  the  centers  of  all  that  was  most 
conspicuous  in  the  world  of  action,  rose  the  mo- 
nastic schools  with  their  speculations  and  doctrines 
of  metaphysical  theology.  The  struggle  of  indi- 
vidual European  States  to  emerge  from  Feudalism 
and  to  make  Monarchy  supreme  finds  its  counter- 
part in  the  strife  of  scholastic  theologians  and 
the  union  of   all  under  the  sway  of   Koine. 

That  great  series  of  events  which  we  call  the 
Reformation,  was  indeed  an  age  of  practice,  but 
of  theory  as  well.  The  discovery  of  America,  the 
voyages  of  Columbus  and  Cortes,  the  unsurpassed 
results  achieved  by  Copernicus  and  Galileo,  cannot 
be  dissociated  from  the  new  theological  revolu- 
tion, the  Renaissance,  and  the  rise  of  modern 
philosophy. 

Coming  to  our  own  century,  where  so  much 
political  activity  has  prevailed  and  material  prog- 
ress has  been  made,  we  find  an  immense  .advance 
in  scientific  life,  the  proposition  of  new  and  far- 
reaching  systems  of  philosophy,  and  the  multipli- 
cation to  an  unprecedented  extent  of  educational 
and  literary  institutions. 

If  history  teaches  anything,  it  teaches  that  the 
closest  relationship  exists  between  the  seething 
world  of  action  and  the   calmer  world  of  thought 


52 

and  theory.  In  whatever  direction  we  look,  we 
sec  that  the  two  advance  together.  Germany 
shows  it  in  the  immense  scientific  development  at 
a  time  when  she  was  fighting  to  secure  her  Im- 
perial Constitution  and  her  independence  of  action 
as  the  leading  state  of  Europe.  Italy  shows  it 
by  the  second  Renaissance,  which  began  at  the 
overthrow"  of  the  temporal  power  of  the  Papacy 
and  has  continued  during  the  critical  youth  of 
her  newly- established  kingdom.  England,  and 
even  republican  France,  have  shown  it  by  their 
contributions  to  thought  and  letters  during  the 
troubled  times  of  internal  conflicts. 

It  must  be  freely  admitted  that  there  is  an 
important  difference  between  the  university  ideals 
of  Europe  and  America,  particularly  between 
that  of  Germany  and  America.  The  construction 
of  the  German  State  is  such  that  the  University 
course  is  a  necessary  preparation  for  many 
branches  of  public  life,  is  indeed  a  process  by 
which  an  intellectual  bureaucracy  is  created. 
This  is  not  so  much  the  case  in  America.  While 
it  is  true  that  the  Law  is  often  called  the  step- 
ping-stone to  public  preferment,  it  is  a  fact  that 
many  of  our  most  eminent  and  useful  statesmen 
have  not  had  a  legal  training.  Even  the  require- 
ments of  the  Civil  Service  do  not  involve  a  col- 
legiate education,  and  conversely  the  collegiate 
courses  are  not  expressly  arranged  for  those  who 
propose    to    enter    official    life.      The  Government 


53 

interferes  only  indirectly  in  the  higher  education 
of  its  citizens  ;  and  in  a  democracy,  as  a  rule, 
the  people  are  not  willing  to  be  taxed  for  insti- 
tutions which  do  not  meet  the  general  demands 
of  the  many. 

In  the  Greek  democracy  powerful  schools  for 
instruction  in  Rhetoric,  Logic,  Philosophy  and 
Politics  arose  for  the  enlightenment  of  those  who 
wished  to  enter  public  life;  but  these  were  for 
the  few  rather  than  for  the  multitude,  and  re- 
ceived no  support  from  the  State.  It  is  the  same 
in  our  own  Republic. 

In  Europe  most  of  the  universities  have  a  po- 
litical significance  —  as  in  Russia,  where  they  are 
jealously  watched  as  centers  of  sedition  or  revo- 
lution; as  in  Germany,  where  they  are  more  or 
less  controlled  by  the  Imperial  Government;  as 
in  England,  even,  where  they  are  represented  in 
Parliament. 

In  this  country  universities  are  created  to  sup- 
ply the  demand  for  higher  education.  They  de- 
pend, in  but  few  instances,  on  ancient  and 
conditional  endowments;  they  are  in  most  cases 
independent  of  State  control.  In  Europe  the 
curriculum  is  not  merely  for  the  purpose  of  sup- 
plying a  demand,  but  is  independent  of  such  a 
demand.  The  emptiness  of  an  auditorium  or  lab- 
oratory does  not  displace  the  professor  nor  cause 
the    disappearance  of   his  specialty.     Investigation 


54 

and  discovery  are  and  should  be  ranked  with 
education  and  instruction. 

So  great  is  the  thirst  for  knowledge,  that  there 
is  a  pursuit,  not  merely  of  sciences  which  bring 
bread  and  butter  to  their  devotees,  but  there  is 
a  multitude  of  men  willing  to  forego  the  luxuries 
of  this  life  for  the  sake  of  Greek  syntax,  of  the 
higher  mathematics,  of  archaeology  and  philoso- 
phy. For  them  there  is  often  no  material  re- 
ward, for  the  number  of  specialists  in  science  and 
letters  is  far  greater  than  that  of  university 
chairs. 

The  work  of  the  University  in  Europe,  as  well 
as  here,  is  supplemented  by  schools  which  pre- 
pare men  for  commercial  and  industrial  pursuits. 
In  such  a  country  as  this  of  ours  there  is  a  large 
place  for  institutions  like  the  latter,  and  there 
are  many  who  would  encourage  only  commercial 
and  polytechnical  education.  Such  a  practical 
tendency  indicates  a  failure  to  see  the  true  origin 
and  source  of  such  technical  subjects.  That  they 
should  either  form  part  of  a  university  course,  or 
be  closely  related  to  it,  may  be  freely  admitted, 
but  the  fons  et  principium  of  all  true  practice 
lies  in  intelligent  theory.  For  Art  is  dependent 
on  Science.     Doing  is  dependent  on  Thinking. 

Mechanical  Art,  when  it  passes  beyond  the 
simple  handiwork  of  the  laborer  to  the  great  con- 
structions of  the  engineer,  finds  its  support  in  the 


55 

science  of  mechanics,  and  this  is  in  turn  founded 
on  mathematics. 

The  Art  of  Medicine  is  dependent  not  only  on 
the  Sciences  of  Anatomy  and  Physiology,  but 
also  on  that  of  Chemistry,  and  needs  for  its  in- 
vestigation as  well  as  its  furtherance  the  help  of 
languages  both  living  and  dead. 

The  Art  of  Finance  in  minor  trades  and  smaller 
commercial  transactions  may  require  only  common 
sense  and  a  knowledge  of  arithmetic;  but  beyond, 
the  greater  movements,  involving  the  relations  be- 
tween Capital  and  Labor,  between  the  Govern- 
ment and  the  People,  are  the  laws  of  Social  and 
Political  Economy.  A  man  may  have  knowledge 
of  these  and  be  unsuccessful  in  affairs,  just  as  a 
great  physician  may  be  an  indifferent  chemist,  or 
a  great  preacher  a  man  ignorant  of  abstruse  the- 
ological questions.  But  the  theory  is  related  to 
the  practice  as  the  source  or  the  unimportant  rill 
which  flows  from  it  is  to  the  mighty  river  that 
fructifies  a  continent  and  bears  the  peaceful  arma- 
das of  commerce  to  the  sea. 

But  technical  education  is  not  the  only  education 
that  is  needed  by  the  man  of  technical  pursuits. 
The  complaint  is  often  made  that  the  theorist  is 
not  well  fitted  for  practical  action.  His  knowl- 
edge is  a  knowledge  of  /the  mere  student  or  re- 
cluse, a  knowledge  of  the  laboratory  or  of  the 
library,  rather  than  the  broader  knowledge  re- 
quired to  make  practice  useful  and  effective.     In 


56 

like  manner  it  may  be  objected  that  the  technical 
specialist  is  too  little  of  a  theorist.  Without  ex- 
aggeration it  may  be  said  that  an  exclusively  tech- 
nical education  has  a  constraining  and  limiting 
effect  on  the  mind.  Art  and  practical  action  may 
be  followed  so  specially  as  to  shut  the  eyes  of 
practical  men  to  the  greatest  objects  which  are  to 
be  gained  by  a  more  general  and  liberal  education. 
Late  in  life  the  man  of  practical  affairs,  who 
has  achieved  great  material  results  and  perhaps 
has  accumulated  great  wealth,  begins  to  look  with 
longing  eyes  toward  that  vast  treasure-house  of 
thought  and  letters  from  which  he  is  shut  out  by 
the  limitations  of  his  earlier  training.  Before  this 
time  it  had  seemed  to  him  only  a  dreary  temple, 
to  be  entered  by  those  whose  life  was  removed 
from  practical  affairs.  Its  riches  were,  as  he 
thought,  of  no  use  in  carrying  out  great  practical 
enterprises  and  winning  wealth,  and  applause,  and 
fame.  But  after  these  are  achieved  by  any  man, 
there  often  comes  over  him,  however  ignorant  he 
may  be,  at  least  a  curiosity,  and  very  often  a  sad 
and  hopeless  longing  to  be  a  dweller  in  that  cul- 
tivated country  where  results  are  not  to  be  meas- 
ured by  the  senses  nor  to  be  recorded  in  the 
ledger.  It  must  be  said,  that  men  who  later  in 
life  have  these  feelings  have  been  among  the 
noblest  friends  that  American  universities  have 
known.  Go  where  you  will  to  the  richly- endowed 
institutions  in  which  young  men  are  gaining  this 


57 

higher  education,  and  everywhere  you  will  be  able 
to  trace,  by  the  generous  shifts  of  those  who  have 
taken  no  degree  in  Art  and  Science,  the  indica- 
tion of  that  dee])  regret  which  has  led  the  givers 
to  furnish  for  others  that  which  they  have  lacked 
themselves. 

I  take  it  that  one  of  the  noblest  characteristics 
of  our  people  is  that  desire  which  so  many  feel, 
and  often  so  earnestly  express,  that  their  children 
may  learn  to  know  that  fertile  and  radiant  land 
of  which  the  parents  catch  but  a  passing  glimpse. 
For  them  the  wheel  of  practical  life,  with  its  loud 
distracting  revolutions,  cannot  altogether  hush  the 
voice  which  speaks  to  them  from  a  remote  antiq- 
uity, from  period  after  period  of  classical  history 
and  classical  song.  The  hopes  of  a  great  material 
future  in  which  the  forces  of  nature  are  to  be 
held  by  a  Promethean  hand,  cannot  make  them 
forget  altogether  the  highway  of  the  past  along 
which  the  scholar  lingers  in  an  atmosphere  of 
philosophy  and  poetry  and  art.  And  almost  in- 
stinctively they  know  that  the  newer  vintages 
which  practical  science  and  contemporary  litera- 
ture set  before  them,  have  not  the  classic  purity 
and  sweetness  of  those  less  exciting  but  nobler 
products  of  an  earlier  day.  Hence  the  almost 
pathetic  eagerness  of  men  who  spend  the  twilight 
hours  of  useful  lives  in  hoarding  upon  book 
shelves  or  in  art  galleries  that  which  their  earlier 
education  has  not  enabled  them  to  enjoy,  but  the 


58 

value  of  which  their  declining  years  have  forced 
them  to  appreciate. 

Even  if  mere  utility  be  regarded  as  the  stand- 
ard by  which  the  value  of  higher  education  is  to 
he  measured,  it  will  be  found  that  the  university 
courses  in  the  classics,  and  what  in  Scotland  are 
called  the  humanities,  are  of  great  importance  in 
many  walks  of  practical  life.  Theologians  must 
be  trained,  and  besides  a  knowledge  of  Hebrew, 
Greek  and  Latin,  they  require  a  literary  educa- 
tion, or  are  the  better  for  a  literary  education. 
It  is  doubtful  whether  in  any  other  profession 
there  is  so  great  an  opportunity  of  using  knowl- 
edge of  history,  of  poetry,  of  psychology,  logic 
and  ethics.  Almost  every  branch  of  learning  can 
be  employed  to  illustrate  their  preaching  and 
teaching.  And  what  is  true  of  the  clergy  is  true 
also  of  other  classes  in  the  community  to  a 
greater  or  less  extent.  There  are  medical  men 
and  scientific  men,  there  are  lawyers  and  engi- 
neers, whose  knowledge  would  be  of  far  greater 
use  to  the  world  had  they  enjoyed  the  cultivat- 
ing influence  of  a  general,  as  well  as  of  a  special 
training. 

I  will  not  enter  into  a  consideration  of  the 
vexed  question  as  to  how  far  classical  training 
is  a  waste  of  time  to  professional  men,  but  I 
would  suggest  that  those  who  would  minimize 
its  importance  seem  to  me  to  take  a  superficial 
view  of  the  intellectual   world  in  which   we  live. 


59 

Shining  examples  may  be  brought  forward  of 
men,  who,  in  their  thought  and  in  the  expres- 
sion of  their  thought  are  unsurpassed,  although 
they  have  no  direct  knowledge  of  the  ancient 
languages.  But  it  must  be  remembered  that 
from  their  educational  surroundings  we  cannot 
eliminate  that  classical  influence  which  permeates 
modern  literature,  without  which  modern  litera- 
ture would  not  be  what  it  is.  It  is  by  the  clas- 
sical standard  that  we  judge  the  style  even  of 
those  who  never  have  read  a  line  of  Plato  or 
Demosthenes,  to  whom  Cicero  and  Quintilian  are 
known  only  by  name. 

Beside  all  this,  one  who  has  once  joined  that 
company  which  is  led  by  the  Muses  of  the 
Classic  age  can  never  feel  himself  to  be  alone. 
However  arduous  his  life,  however  rude  his  sur- 
roundings, however  far  he  may  be  removed  from 
society  which  is  cultivated  and  civilized,  he  can 
join  in  the  exalted  strain  of  the  Roman  poet, 
changing  only  what  is  geographical  and  retain- 
ing all  the  inspiration  of  that  ancient  lyric  apos- 
trophe : 

"Vester,  Camenre,  vester  in  arduous 
Tollor  Sabinos,  seu  mihi  frigidum 
Pneneste  seu  Tibur  supinum 
Seu  liquids  placuere  Baise. 
Utcunque  mecum  vos  eritis,  libens 
Insanientem  navita  Bosporum 
Tentabo  et  urentes  arenas 
Littoris  Assyrii  viator; 
Visam  Britannos  hospitibus  feros 


60 

Et  lifctum  equino  sanguine  Concanum, 

Visam  pharetratros  Gelonos 

Et  Scythicum  inviolatus  amnem. 

Vos  Ca3sarem  altura,  militia  simul 

Fessas  cohortes  addidit  oppidis, 

Finire  quierentem  labores 

Pierio  recreatis  antro. 

Vos  lene  consilium  et  datis  et  dato 

Gaudetis  almse." 

The  pursuit  of  the  historical  method  at  our 
universities  seems  to  me  to  be  of  the  highest  im- 
portance,  not  only  to  professional  men  in  general, 
but  to  practical  professional  men ;  not  only  to 
practical  professional  men,  but  to  non-professional 
men.  No  one  who  has  watched  the  development 
of  science  in  the  present  century  can  fail  to  have 
noticed  the  important  part  played  by  historical 
study  in  this  great  advancement.  The  theory  of 
evolution,  for  example,  is  founded  on  the  natural 
history  of  the  universe,  and  when  presented  it 
forms,  as  it  were,  the  biography  of  Nature.  If 
one  would  avoid  error  and  useless  effort,  one 
must  use  assiduously  the  historical  method.  We 
should  find  great  fault  to-day  with  an  inventor 
who  might  claim  to  have  just  planned  the  tele- 
graph or  telephone,  and  should  tell  him  that 
every  child  knows  about  these  inventions,  and 
that  we  had  known  of  them  for  years.  It  is  al- 
most as  strange  to  find  many  professing  to  have 
constructed  theories  which  they  suppose  to  be 
new  and  which  in  reality  have  long  been  ex- 
ploded, or  setting  forth  as  new  that  which  is  old 


61 

and  long  since  known  by  those  who  have  studied 
the  past. 

The  present  can  be  truly  understood  only  by 
those  who  understand  the  past,  and  in  this  sense 
all  the  sciences,  both  theoretical  and  practical,  are 
historical  sciences.  Indeed,  many  of  the  most  prac- 
tical truths  cannot  be  learned  on  the  exchange,  in 
the  factory,  in  the  courts  of  law,  in  laboratories, 
in  hospitals,  or  in  the  busy  life  around  us,  but 
must  be  learned  from  the  failures  and  successes 
of  the  race  in  its  past  struggles.  To  appreciate 
this  is  the  best  preventive  of  a  dangerous  radical- 
ism on  the  one  hand,  and  of  a  timid  conservatism 
on  the  other. 

I  cannot  refrain  from  noticing  one  point  of  re- 
lationship between  the  university  and  practical 
life,  with  which  you  are  all  familiar,  but  which 
seems  to  me  worthy  of  especial  consideration.  I 
refer  to  that  existing  between  our  higher  institu- 
tions of  learning  and  the  physical  interests  of  the 
American  people.  In  a  country  where  the  ma- 
terial resources  have  to  be  developed,  and  rapidly 
developed,  to  meet  the  wants  of  a  vast  population 
which  is  growing  every  day,  the  whole  man,  body 
and  soul,  must  go  at  a  fast  pace,  which  is  a  con- 
stant menace  to  the  robustness  of  the  nervous  sys- 
tem and  to  the  health  of  the  community.  You 
are  familiar  with  this  phase  of  life  here.  In  the 
East  we  watch  the  vast  procession  of  immigrants 
which  is   sweeping  westward,  and  we   know  how 


02 

the  great  Americanizing  mil  J  of  this  part  of  the 
country  must  work  to  adapt  them  to  the  condi- 
tions of  our  civilization. 

It  is  an  office  of  the  University  to  teach  men 
that  there  is  need  of  reflection  as  well  as  ener- 
getic action,  and  so  to  keep  within  safe  limits  the 
exuberant  growth  and  expansion  of  Society.  But, 
besides  this,  one  of  the  characteristics  of  the  Amer- 
ican, as  of  the  English,  University,  is  what  I  may 
describe  as  Dorian  —  a  care  of  man's  body  as  well 
as  the  development  of  his  mind.  By  the  gener- 
ous rivalry  of  the  various  schools  and  colleges  in 
gymnastic  and  athletic  sports,  the  physical  as  well 
as  the  mental  part  of  the  student  receives  great 
benefit;  and  so  far  from  being  "sicklied  o'er  with 
the  pale  cast  of  thought,"  men  find  it  quite  easy 
to  acquire  a  high  degree  of  scholarship  without 
finding  in  the  end  that  their  nerves  are  ruined 
and  their  lungs  contracted.  Statistics  inform  us, 
as  common -sense  might  do,  that  the  qualities  which 
favor  healthy  life,  which  put  a  crew  at  the  head 
of  a  river  or  win  games  of  foot-ball  or  base-ball, 
are  not  entirely  divorced  from  those  which  Avin 
by  application  and  steady  perseverance  the  more 
enduring  laurels  of  academic  fame. 

In  this  respect  I  venture  to  say,  university 
authorities  have  something  to  learn  from  the 
undergraduates — the  inspiration  of  healthy  com- 
petition—  competition  in  the  field  of  scholarship 
such   as   those   instructed   by  them  display  in  the 


63 

athletic  world.  It  would  be  a  great  stimulus  to 
university  life  were  the  rivalry  greater  in  this 
respect.  Believe  me,  gentlemen,  the  place  of  an 
university  intellectually  is  not  to  be  determined 
by  the  number  of  professors  in  its  faculty,  nor 
the  number  of  students  on  its  rolls.  There  are, 
it  is  true,  some  of  our  Eastern  institutions  of 
learning  which  belie  their  name,  and  have  in- 
creased the  number  of  their  undergraduates  by 
lessening  the  value  of  their  degree.  Let  us  see 
to  it  that  we  encourage  men  in  every  possible 
way  to  enter  our  colleges,  but  having  entered 
them  let  us  not  be  satisfied — as  is  the  case  in  the 
far  East  —  with  calling  a  man  Bachelor  of  Arts 
whose  university  course  has  fitted  him  to  be  little 
more  than  an  accomplished  dancing-master  or  a 
third-rate  actor.  It  is  true  that  we  may  measure 
the  greatness  of  an  imperial  University  like  Ber- 
lin by  numbers  as  well  as  scholarship,  but  a 
truer  idea  of  the  meaning  of  a  high  standard  is 
gained  by  comparing  Baliol  with  other  far  larger 
colleges  in  the  University  of  Oxford.  Superiority 
in  scholarship  is  not  altogether  dependent  on  the 
personnel  of  the  faculty,  (although  here  at  Law- 
rence you  may  see  what  a  power  that  is,)  but  is 
the  result  of  the  maintenance  of  a  high  standard 
and  a  thorough  earnestness  on  the  part  of  both 
professors  and  students  to  win  a  victory  in  com- 
petition  with   sister   institutions.     It  is  the    result 


04 

of  an  enthusiasm  in  the  cause  of  learning  for 
learning's  sake. 

You  will  freely  admit  that  we,  all  of  us,  East 
and  West,  have  had  much   to  learn  from    Europe 

in  the  formation  and  development  of  our  intel- 
lectual life.  The  time  is  at  hand  when  in  many 
respects  the  positions  of  teacher  and  learner  must 
be  reversed,  and  the  eyes  of  the  Eastern  seers 
will  be  fixed  occasionally  on  the  star  of  empire 
in  its  westward  course.  Here  in  the  West,  with- 
out the  fetters  of  tradition,  you  have  had  and 
have  the  opportunity  of  making  new  experiments 
and  substantial  advances  in  educational  methods. 
It  is  true  that  this  is  a  dangerous  responsibility, 
but  it  is  for  you  to  feel  the  responsibility  and 
rest  assured  that  as  each  advance  is  crowned 
with  success,  there  are  in  the  older  countries  and 
States  receptive  minds  which  are  ready  to  follow 
you. 

It  is  an  often -repeated  boast  that  as  civiliza- 
tion in  America  advances,  the  school -house  is 
one  of  the  first  buildings  to  appear  in  a  new 
community.  One  may  truly  add  that  where  ma- 
terial development  is  most  conspicuous,  there 
university  life  is  ultimately  vigorous.  We  find  a 
proof  of  this  in  Massachusetts  and  Connecticut, 
for  example,  where  institutions  of  learning  flour- 
ish within  the  sound  of  mills  and  factories ;  in 
Ohio,  where  the  agriculture  and  industry  seem 
to    be    symbolic    of    growth    and    work    in    the 


65 

world  of  intellect ;  in  California,  which  looks 
over  the  Western  sea  towards  the  home  of  sci- 
ence and  civilization ;  and  especially  here  in 
Kansas,  the  very  center  of  this  country,  con- 
nected by  arterial  systems  of  railroads  with 
every  part  of  the  great  beating  heart  of  the 
American  continent,  where  you  are  so  actively 
engaged  in  those  pursuits  which  make  a  nation 
not  only  rich  and  strong,  but  also  wise  and 
good. 

It  is  thus  the  chief  function  of  the  University 
to  know  and  to  teach  the  truth.  The  history  of 
intellectual  progress  is  the  history  of  an  attempt 
to  answer  the  question  of  the  vaccillating  Judean 
governor,  What  is  Truth?  The  University  must 
say  to  those  who  come  to  it  for  light,  paraphras- 
ing the  old  saying,  " Nihil  veri  alienum  putavi" 
And,  if  this  be  so,  it  is  impossible  for  any  one 
to  raise  the  question  of  utility  with  reference  to 
the  University  course.  Again,  a  high  authority 
tells  us,  "The  truth  shall  make  you  free.""  Truth 
is  the  way  to  liberty.  The  inspired  epigram 
shows  the  logical  order  of  surveying  these  two 
priceless  benefits.  Kousseau  tells  us  that  "  Man 
is  born  free,  but  everywhere  he  is  in  chains,  and 
that  he  covers  with  flowers  and  calls  it  freedom." 
But  we  know  very  well  that  the  only  true  free- 
dom is  the  effect  of  enlightenment.  "  The  truth 
shall  make  you  free"  had  primarily  a  religious 
meaning ;  but  in  this  saying  we  recognize  the  ex- 


66 

pression  of  an  universal  verity.  It  is  indeed 
religious  truth  which  shall  make  us  free  —  free 
from  sin,  free  from  the  baser  passions  and  the 
lower  instincts  ;  free  from  the  punishment  that 
is  sure  to  follow  the  violation  of  the  moral  Jaw. 
But  the  Truth  gives  us  Freedom  in  a  wider 
sense.  History  records  many  noble  and  passion- 
ate efforts  for  the  attainment  of  human  freedom. 
It  records  no  instance  in  which  Ignorance  has 
emancipated  men  from  any  kind  of  thralldom. 
The  yoke  of  ancient  Egypt  was  endured  by  the 
enslaved  Israelite  in  spite  of  the  taskmaster's  whip 
and  the  oppressive  laws  of  the  Pharaohs.  The 
leadership  of  Moses  was  crowned  Avith  success  be- 
cause he  w^as  the  revealer  of  Truth,  learned  dur- 
ing his  earlier  years  in  the  court  of  the  tyrant, 
learned  in  many  a  vigil  during  his  pastoral  life 
in  Horeb.  The  freedom  of  Attica  was  no  mere 
accident.  Attic  wisdom  and  Attic  liberty  cannot 
be  thought  of  apart  from  one  another.  When 
the  Reformation  in  modern  Europe  began,  the 
Truth,  which  had  long  languished  in  the  midst  of 
superstitions,  oppressions,  priestcraft,  unworthy  tra- 
ditions, was  crowned  again.  Chains  were  broken, 
ungenerous  laws  were  repealed,  Society  was  to 
know  that  the  Kingdom  of  God  was  not  a  despot- 
ism, that  it  was  a  kingdom  of  intelligence.  It  was 
not  a  revolution  led  by  a  rebellious  monk — it  was 
the  culmination  in  action  of  a  revival  of  Truth. 
It  is  no  mere  accident  that  the  reformed  churches 


67 

have  so  often  been  on  the  side  of  religions  freedom. 
Dark  spots  there  are  on  the  fame  of  some  reform- 
ers in  those  intolerant  times.  Bnt  if  yon  would 
see  an  illustration  of  the  emancipating  power  of 
the  Truth,  you  need  only  look  at  the  fiery  conflict 
of  Huguenot,  Covenanter,  and  Puritan,  in  which 
the  flowers  of  Ritual,  Sensuality,  worldly  pros- 
perity, ecclesiastical  pride,  were  stripped  from  the 
chains  in  which  Europe  had  for  so  long  been  lan- 
guishing. There  could  be  no  more  cogent  proof 
of  this  particular  power  of  truth  than  the  fact 
that  the  liberty  of  Europe  was  only  a  possibility 
after  Science,  substantial  religion,  Literature  and 
knowledge  of  the  spirituality  of  real  religion  had 
been  born  again.  Liberty  is  not  a  thing  to  be 
achieved  by  the  blind  agitation  of  ignorant  men. 
It  is  the  child  of  truth,  and  "  Truth  is  the  daughter 
of  Time."  Freedom  has  indeed  a  bastard  sister 
which  respects  neither  property,  the  family,  nor  Re- 
ligion. Against  this  perverted  creation  of  our  time 
we  have  to  be  on  our  guard.  There  may  be  many 
respects  in  which  we  do  not  enjoy  our  proper  meas- 
ure of  liberty,  but  our  safeguard  against  such  dan- 
gers is  the  education  of  our  citizens.  The  leaders 
of  the  French  Revolution  had  a  faint  appreciation 
of  this  when  they  defied  Reason  in  their  efforts  to 
attain  to  liberty,  equality,  and  fraternity.  But 
with  their  eyes  open  to  one  side  of  the  truth,  they 
were  in  most  cases  blind  to  the  verities  of  mor- 
ality and    religion.     To    that   sightless    eye,  raised 


68 

to  a  Godless  heaven,  there  appears  no  vision  of 
true  Liberty.  Around  us  everywhere  we  may 
read  the  same  lesson.  Blind  rage  at  political 
abuses,  the  bitter  bread  of  poverty,  the  weariness 
of  unprofitable  labor,  the  vicious  examples  of  those 
who  use  their  wealth  for  the  gratification  of  Lust 
and  ambition — these  are  the  motive  power  of  so- 
cialism, communism,  and  anarchy.  But  these  the- 
ories are  only  attempts  to  tear  the  chains  from  the 
limbs  of  some,  to  fasten  them  on  the  limbs  of 
others.  All  of  these  blind  strivings  of  the  poor, 
the  discontented,  the  oppressed,  the  unfortunate  of 
every  kind,  even  the  guilty  for  release  from  the 
thralldom  which  they  endure,  are  voices  appealing 
to  our  universities.  They  are  not  to  be  suppressed 
by  sneers,  nor  to  be  drowned  with  the  shedding 
of  blood.  The  darkness  which  seems  sometimes 
to  threaten  our  social  conditions  can  be  relieved 
in  only  this  way.  Men  have  endured  martyrdom 
for  far  worse  causes  than  the  natural,  nay,  the 
divine  impulse  to  rise  from  degradation,  poverty 
and  slavery.  Upon  all  such  darkness  the  light 
of  Truth  must  shine.  Truth  is  the  only  beacon 
which  can  save  distressed  society  from  shipwreck. 
All  impulses,  however  noble  or  natural,  or  divine 
or  powerful  they  may  be,  must  be  guided  by 
Truth  if  they  are  to  be  made  effective,  happy 
and  enduring  in  their  results.  The  gallows  may 
be  planted  in  the  camp  of  the  enemy  to  society, 
gold  may  be    given    to    the   leaders  of  discontent, 


69 

and  many  loud  voices  will  be  silenced  ;  but,  me- 
thinks,  after  all  this  prevention  I  still  hear  that 
portentous  undertone  which  may  one  day  burst 
into  a  roar  like  the  sound  of  many  waters.  It 
seems  to  many  to  be  only  a  cry  of  discontent ; 
but  he  who  is  a  wise  interpreter  will  recognize 
in  these  disaffected  mutterings  and  in  these  tur- 
bulent cries  an  unconscious  appeal  for  the  Truth 
which  shall  make  these  people  free.  In  its  radi- 
ant light  our  society  need  not  find  Plato's  de- 
scription of  the  multitude  a  reflection  of  reality. 
Like  cattle  with  their  faces  turned,  they  feed 
and  breed  and  butt  and  kick  at  one  another 
with  horns  and  hoofs  which  are  made  of  iron, 
for  they  are  filled  with  that  which  is  unsubstan- 
tial. Rather  will  they  be  like  those  described 
by  the  same  philosopher  who  no  longer  linger 
in  the  shades  of  the  cave  of  ignorance  with  bod- 
ies chained  and  with  eyes  fixed  on  the  images 
cast  by  passing  objects  on  the  dreary  walls,  but 
will  emerge  into  the  light  of  day,  for  the  Truth 
shall  make  them  free. 

We  are  told  on  high  authority  that  "Man  shall 
not  live  by  bread  alone,  but  by  every  word  that 
proceedeth  out  of  the  mouth  of  God" — a  saying 
which  indicates  the  necessity  of  something  higher 
and  greater  than  material  prosperity.  This  truth 
has  a  secular  as  well  as  a  religious  application, 
and  suggests  our   proper    attitude  in  the  midst  of 


70 

the  bewildering  rapidity  with  which  America 
is  accomplishing   in   a  short    space    of    time    what 

other  nations  have  patiently  awaited  for  ages. 
"Man  shall  not  live  by  bread  alone,"  but  by 
learning  that  the  mind  is  to  be  fed  as  well  as 
the  body.  "Man  shall  not  live  by  bread  alone," 
but  by  reading  on  dark  or  splendid  pages  of 
history  the  failures  and  triumphs  of  nations  in 
the  past;  by  penetrating  through  other  languages 
than  his  own  the  habit  of  thought,  the  liter- 
ature, and  the  character  of  other  times  and 
other  lands;  by  studying  in  the  mathematical 
sciences  the  relations  of  that  Infinite  Space 
in  which  Matter  is  known,  or  of  that  Infinite 
Time,  on  which  our  idea  of  number  depends. 
"Man  shall  not  live  by  bread  alone,"  but  by 
reading  upon  the  starry  face  of  night  the  secrets 
of  other  worlds  by  looking  back  through  age 
upon  age  toward  the  origin  of  this  universe,  and 
forward  to  the  mystery  of  its  destiny.  There  will 
always  be  minds  starving  for  this  kind  of  food, 
and  they  must  be  fed.  With  all  its  many  pur- 
poses, the  University  of  Kansas  may  claim  this 
proud  object  as  its  highest  and  best.  It  is  this 
to  which  its  energies  are  directed,  and  on  which 
its  hopeful  eyes  are  fixed.  If  anything  were 
needed  to  prove  the  truth  of  what  I  have  been 
endeavoring  to  suggest  and  to  express,  and  to 
show  that   it   has   been  the    inspiration  of    others, 


71 

I  would  only  point  to  this  great  institution,  which 
now  combines  the  health  and  promise  of  youth 
with  the  vigor  and  activity  of  manhood. 


UNIVERSITY  OF  ILUNOI8-URBANA 


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